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Bernier Proposes Surrender in 5th Congressional Race. Wants to Short-Cirucit Primary Competition.

Republican congressional hopeful Justin Bernier asked his four competitors for the party’s nomination in the open 5th District race to agree to withdraw from the field of battle if they did not receive 15% of the votes at the spring nominating convention.  The 15% threshold allows a candidate to force a primary without having to obtain signatures from party members in the district.

Bernier points to this winter’s raucous Republican presidential primary campaign as a reason to limit the competition of ideas among candidates and party members, calling it a “bloodbath.” The Plainville Republican, whose campaign highlights his experience in the military, sounded many timid notes in his proposal.  He complains of the consequences of negative primary ads in a general election campaign.  Bernier was employed on Republican U.S. Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s 2010 campaign after he lost his 2010 primary race in the 5th

Many candidates, however, benefit from the crucible of competition that unnerves Bernier. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, for example, has become a more resourceful, limber candidate as he dispatches with his Republican competitors before facing the challenge of the fall campaign against an opponent who employs the Chicago way of politics.

Farmington Republican Mike Clark, one of the five candidates for the nomination, dismissed Bernier’s proposal. “I have no interest in signing a pledge that takes away the right of the voters to vote for their candidate of choice.  The Republican candidates can ill afford to play games like this with one another when the significant issues of economic stability and job creation require utmost attention and real-world solutions,” Clark said.

Mark Greenberg campaign spokesman Chris Cooper also rejected the Bernier gambit. “Mark will not sign that pledge because he believes in the electoral process we have in place. It is part of our democratic process and Mark has been very consistent in his belief in that process.”

Greenberg, who also faced Bernier in the 2010 nomination contest, and Clark pointed out that Bernier made campaign promises regarding advancing to a primary in 2010 that he later abandoned when he failed to prevail at the nominating convention.

Clark added that Bernier’s “pledge suggestion is particularly offensive coming from the candidate who made pre-convention promises in 2010 that were not kept.”  Cooper, speaking for Greenberg, said, “Justin made a similar pledge in 2010 and promptly reneged on it after losing at the convention, so he has a credibility problem with his own pledge.”