Candidates seeking a Republican nomination for office may soon have to sign a pledge promising not to oppose their party’s eventual nominee in the race or else forego any national party money for their campaign effort.
The new party pledge is an effort to avoid defections like that of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who accepted donations while running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican but then dropped out of his primary race against Marco Rubio. Crist is now running for the office as an independent.
Party members at the Republican National Committee’s summer meeting in Kansas City adopted a change to RNC rules Thursday that would require future candidates to sign the pledge during primary season. The pledge won’t be finalized until it is adopted at the GOP’s 2012 convention.
Full story: 44 – RNC looks to new party pledge to avoid candidate defections