Primaries: Parties Agree on April 3

In an almost unprecedented step, the Republican Party of Texas and the Texas Democratic Party have issued a joint press statement. And why this lions lying down with lambs moment? They have struck a deal for a new calendar for the 2012 primaries, one that provides little benefit to the presidential aspirations of Gov. Rick Perry .

After the Supreme Court of the United States blocked the interim House, Senate and Congressional maps, both parties and their candidates were left in utter limbo unsure of when or where they would be running.

There was talk of a split primary calendar, with the presidential, US Senate, county and SBOE primaries still on March 6 and the contested maps a month later. Now the two parties have settled on a unified single primary on April 3 (pending the approval of the federal judicial panel in San Antonio.) The maps may still be unclear (and will probably remain that way until after the SCOTUS hearing in early January and the preclearance trial later that month), but at least there is a calendar now.

Here's what we have now:

Feb. 1 – New residency deadline for candidates seeking election to the Texas House and Texas

Feb. 1, 6pm – New deadline of court-ordered reopened filing period, in which candidates for all offices have the opportunity to amend, withdraw or file a new application for the ballot

Feb. 3 – New deadline for County Executive Committees to conduct drawing for candidate order on ballot

April 3 – General Primary Election

April 14 or April 21 – of County and Senatorial District Conventions, as determined by the State Chair of each political party

June 5 – General Primary Runoff Election

The two parties had already agreed to push back the close of filing from today to Dec. 19. They had also created effectively a "get out of jail free" system, so that candidates who did file would be able to withdraw and get their filing fee back if their district was redrawn around them yet again.

And what about Perry? He may be the big loser in all of this. Under Republican National Committee rules, state presidential primaries held in March must be proportionate. However, April primaries can be winner takes all. So will Texas become a winner-take-all state?

According to RPT spokesman Chris Elam, no. Via email he explained that Texas used to operate under a complicated "modified 'winner-take-all' system. [but] this rule potentially conflicted with the new Republican National Committee rule adopted in August of 2010, which required states that held primaries prior to April 1 to select their delegates proportionally." The state party dumped that old system and adopted the proportionate approach at its Oct. 1 State Republican Executive Committee meeting. Elam continued, "Under the new rule, presidential candidates will be allocated national convention delegates in direct proportion to the statewide popular vote they receive in the Texas Republican Primary." Nowhere in the rules are they allowed to change from proportionate to winner-takes-all, even with a date change.

So let's game that out. If the parties had decided on a split primary, Perry would have won Texas on Super Tuesday, keeping some momentum but sharing the state's 155 delegates to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 27. If Texas had become like other April winner-take-all primaries, he enters the convention with less momentum, but that 155 block could give him some leverage in a brokered deal – either as kingmaker or even vice-presidential candidate.

Instead, he may get the worst of both worlds: An April primary under March rules.