Kentucky Republican leaders OK caucus format

In a move that allows Sen. Rand Paul to run for both president and re-election to the U.S. Senate next spring, the Republican Party of Kentucky on Saturday approved a plan to replace the traditional May presidential primary election with caucuses to be held on March 5.

The party's central committee voted 111-36 on the motion to approve caucuses, which required yes votes of two-thirds of those voting in order to pass.

A key amendment to the caucuses plan — added to ease concerns about how the caucuses will be paid for — requires that Paul raise or transfer at least $250,000 to the state party by Sept. 18.

The party's action avoids what could have been an embarrassing rejection in his home state for Paul, whose presidential campaign has struggled for attention and dipped in national polls this summer. He acknowledged after the vote he was relieved.

"It's a great day. As you know, winning a two-thirds vote is not easy, but we exceeded two-thirds," Paul told reporters. "We had a really, I think, a great discussion. It's almost a little bit like being on a jury. There's back and forth, and back and forth. Ultimately I think people got to the point where they were very comfortable with the idea."

Paul said the proposal is about more than his ability to run for both president and senator in Kentucky next year. He said the caucuses held early in the presidential calendar will make Kentucky relevant in the selection of the GOP's presidential nominee.

"It really is about trying to grow the party...," Paul said. "This is good for the Republican Party, that we'll be able to grow our list and excite people and get more people to turn out."

And Paul said he will provide the $250,000 to the party by Sept. 18.

If Paul does so, Republicans will not vote for president in next May's primary, though the primary will still be conducted for other offices, including U.S. senator.

Instead, on March 5 — which is early in 2016 presidential calendar — Kentucky Republicans will vote for their presidential preferences in caucuses operated by party officials. The caucuses plan has a goal of at least one voting location in each county. Large counties will have multiple locations. The caucus locations will be open from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. for Republicans to cast their votes.

Kentucky's presidential delegates will be awarded on the basis of the percentage of the statewide vote won by each candidate. (It is not a winner-take-all caucus.)

Paul requested the move to caucuses early this year because Kentucky state law bars anyone from running for two offices on the same election ballot. Without the change, he would have had to decide by January of next year whether to run in the Kentucky primary for re-election to the U.S. Senate and give up his chance to win Kentucky's presidential delegates, or seek Kentucky's presidential delegates and drop his bid for re-election to the Senate.

Paul promised party leaders early this year that he would raise sufficient funds to be sure that caucuses could be conducted at no cost to the party. Party officials estimate that cost at about $500,000.

But many party leaders were concerned as Saturday's vote drew near without Paul having provided any money to the party. Those concerns only grew a week ago when Paul wrote a letter to central committee members saying he had transferred $250,000 to the party — a statement he corrected later saying that he had set that amount aside to be transferred after the central committee approved the caucuses plan.

On Saturday, Paul's presidential campaign brought supporters to the Capital Plaza Hotel to rally for the caucuses plan. He told them before the meeting that he planned to run for both president and the Senate next year regardless of the outcome of the vote.

The meeting lasted for nearly four hours — most of it conducted in executive session when Paul made his case.

Key to the comfortable approval margin in Saturday's vote was the amendment made to the caucuses plan offered by Mike Duncan, Kentucky's Republican national committeeman and confidant of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell. That amendment provides that Paul must transfer the $250,000 to the party by Sept. 18. If the money is not transferred by that date, then the caucuses plan will be scrapped and the party will take part in the primary.

Scott Lasley, the Republican Party chairman in Warren County who chaired a special committee to draft the caucuses plan, is among committee members who expressed concerns about funding caucuses. After the vote, Lasley called the $250,000 Paul will transfer "a good start.

"I think the funding will be there. He (Paul) has promised that it will be fully funded," Lasley said. "So we're confident that we'll be able to have a successful caucus."

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at (502) 875-5136.