Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on Sunday said the party’s primary calendar and late-summer national conventions will both be addressed as the GOP continues its evaluation of what went wrong in 2012.
“I’m calling for a convention in June or July,” Priebus said during an appearance on “Face the Nation.” “We’re going to set up a commission that’s going to make that decision. I’m going to be a part of that. I’m going to chair that commission, but no more August conventions.”
Priebus argued that the spending limitations associated with holding a convention in August hurt Mitt Romney. The chairman also echoed the likes of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) in criticizing the party’s protracted presidential nomination process.
“One of the reasons why Mitt Romney was a sitting duck for two months over the summer is under the campaign finance law he couldn’t use money he had already raised until after he received nomination for president in August,” Priebus said. “I believe that our primary process is way too long. I think our calendar needs to be looked at. I think our debate calendar needs to be shrunk. I think we had way too many debates with our candidates slicing and dicing each other and I think they had to wait too long to get to the convention.”
