Roll Call’s Abby Livingston published a piece today on “The 7 Most Dysfunctional State Parties.” Lo and behold, our own Republican Party of Iowa was there along the state GOP operations in Minnesota, Alaska, and Nevada, and state Democratic parties in Alabama, New Jersey, and Georgia.

Livingston noted the successful takeover of state party positions by Ron Paul loyalists during the spring and summer of 2012. She commented,

Paul backers now make up a working majority of the state central committee and occupy the offices of chairman, co-chairman and finance chairman. Their ranks are in constant conflict with Gov. Terry E. Branstad, the state’s most established Republican, and many GOP state lawmakers.

“You’re always going to have bickering and infighting. The idea that somehow we’re a troubled state party is a little bit ridiculous and if you talked to Chairman [Reince] Priebus, he would be happy to agree with that,” Iowa GOP Chairman A.J. Spiker said. He brushed off the notion of ongoing trouble with Branstad and touted his committee’s financial position.

The local discord scares the national GOP – its most immediate concern is the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. National Republicans fear the state’s antiquated convention process could help the Paul supporters nominate an unelectable candidate for the general.

That “antiquated convention process” means that a state GOP convention will select the U.S. Senate nominee if no candidate receives at least 35 percent of the vote in the June 2014 primary. The scenario sounds plausible to me. Supporters of Ron Paul dominated the last state GOP convention in 2012. Most of Iowa’s delegates to the Republican National Convention cast ballots for Paul rather than Mitt Romney.

Livingston notes that Iowa is “fighting for relevance in the presidential primary calendar after the past two [GOP] caucus winners failed to get the national nod.”

Spiker is extremely lucky that Branstad will have the resources and the staff talent to orchestrate a decent early voter program next year. The Iowa GOP and Mitt Romney’s campaign were badly beaten by President Obama’s campaign and the Iowa Democratic Party in early GOTV last year. It cost Romney Iowa’s six electoral votes, and probably also cost the GOP a few Iowa House and Senate seats.