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Republicans have another reason to fight among themselves. It’s another reminder that among Republicans, political intrigue is like cotton candy: It’s not healthy, but it’s sweet.

The issue, playing out in the Shenandoah Valley, the Richmond suburbs and the fringes of Northern Virginia, is an old one: Should Republicans choose their candidates in an open-to-all primary or a members-only convention? But there’s a new twist: The issue could be settled by the courts, though they’ve been leery of doing so.

It’s paradoxical that Republicans might ask a judge to undo a quirk of Virginia election law that protects their control of the legislature.

Republicans sneered at Democrats’ efforts to scuttle, via the courts, what they couldn’t stop in the legislature. Witness: A federal court ruling imperiling the 8-3 GOP advantage in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

That the courts could become the arena in which Republicans increasingly settle their differences — or, at a minimum, game the system for doing so — is a measure of the determination of ascendant conservatives to take total control of the party and of diminished moderates to retain what little they have.