That provision was removed with party primaries. Today, the notion of wooing state convention delegates, which Rockford and Spence have been doing tirelessly, is merely a party courtesy and, indeed, a way of showing the other candidates where they might stand with the electorate as a whole. Wearing the banner of endorsed party candidate while campaigning in a party primary no longer carries the political influence it once did, if it ever had any. Because we have so few primaries in Delaware in either party, it's sometimes easy to forget what primaries are all about. To maintain party loyalty, grass-roots support and a semblance of public decorum, parties, especially Delaware Republicans, would rather not have their candidates bang heads in a primary, even a civil one.
Primaries telegraph discontent and suggest division and acrimony.
And with the ever-increasing number of Delaware voters who don't declare a party allegiance, Republicans need every one of those votes they can get in the general election. If you add up the percentages of delegate strength the foursome claims to have among themselves today, it hovers somewhere around 150 percent. That's a neat trick if you can get away with it. There'll be plenty of private bartering for delegates over the next six weeks. But from the looks of the landscape, Lee will take his campaign to a September primary regardless of his or Burris' delegate support.