The Maryland Republican Party is weighing whether to open its primary elections to independent voters.
Republicans losses in top offices has convinced some party leadership to study inviting unaffiliated voters to help pick GOP candidates as soon as 2014, tapping into the fastest-growing segment of Maryland's electorate.
The idea has inflamed opposition in the party's more conservative ranks, whose members predict partisan shenanigans by Democrats and a dilution of Republican values if independent voters could participate in primaries.
Since 2001, elections officials saw an 83 percent increase in registered voters who don't associate with any political party, growing from 13 percent of the electorate to 17 percent. Republicans agree they need those independents, who number more than 630,000, to cast a ballot in their favor if the party hopes to secure the governorship or other top state jobs.
A task force of seven to nine people will investigate how open Republican primaries have worked in other states where the GOP is in the minority. The study could lead to a vote at the party's convention this fall.
If such a change were approved, Maryland's unaffiliated voters would be able to help pick from a growing field of Republicans contending for the governor's mansion next year, a prospect some gubernatorial candidates endorse and others shun.
NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!
Michael H. Drucker
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