Requesting help to avoid a “costly and time-consuming legal challenge,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is asking members of the Republican Party of Kentucky to create a presidential caucus in 2016 that would happen well ahead of the May primary election. In a letter dated Feb. 9, Paul told GOP leaders that an earlier presidential preference vote would give Kentuckians “more leverage to be relevant” in the wide-open competition for the Republican presidential nomination. And it could help him win that nomination, he said. “You, as a member of the Kentucky Republican Central Committee, will be the one to decide if you want to help me get an equal chance at the nomination,” Paul wrote.
… Kentucky law prevents a candidate from appearing on the same ballot twice, and Paul and his allies have endeavored for more than a year to change the law or find a loophole that would allow him to run for the White House and re-election to his Senate seat at the same time in 2016. Paul’s supporters also maintain that the law is unconstitutional, suggesting it could be challenged in federal court.
However, if Kentucky Republicans decided their choice for the 2016 Republican nomination in an earlier caucus, Paul’s name could appear on a May primary ballot for re-election to the Senate.
Despite published reports to the contrary, Paul wrote that “this idea did not originate with me, or even in this current cycle.”
Full Article: Rand Paul asks Kentucky GOP leaders for a presidential caucus in 2016 | Politics and Government | Kentucky.com.