Democratic Panel Limits New Primary States

by HOLLY RAMER, Associated Press Writer

Published 12:13 pm PDT Thursday, June 22, 2006

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A Democratic National Committee panel considering changes to the presidential primary calendar voted Thursday to allow just two other states to join Iowa and New Hampshire in voting early in 2008.

If the full DNC adopts the recommendation, one state would be allowed to hold a caucus between Iowa's caucus and the New Hampshire primary, and a second would hold a primary shortly after the New Hampshire contest.

Supporters said limiting the new states to two instead of the four some had proposed would accomplish the goal of increasing racial and ethnic diversity without front-loading the calendar or diminishing the traditional roles of Iowa and New Hampshire. Both states have been criticized as unrepresentative of the country given their size and nearly all-white populations.

"I think the diversity we want to achieve in terms of race and union membership and geography and all those other things can be looked at from the context of achieving some, but not all, in the context of the extra primary, and some, but not all, in the context of the extra caucus," Ralph Dawson of New York said during a Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting by conference call. ....

But Mark Brewer of Michigan said the plan doesn't go far enough and suggested adding three or four other states.

"I don't think we're going to achieve the goals this reform is intended to achieve," he said.
Also voting against the proposal was Kathy Sullivan of New Hampshire, who said compressing four events into 18 days will force candidates to pick among them rather than participate in all four.

"I fully support the idea of having more diversity in the process. However, I don't believe this process is going to work to produce a field of candidates that will be running in all the states," she said.

She also noted that the plan could violate New Hampshire law, which requires the state's primary to be scheduled a week or more before any "similar election." The state could face sanctions if it doesn't comply with the Democrats' guidelines.

Ten states plus the District of Columbia have applied to fill the two slots: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina and West Virginia.

The committee will meet next month to select the two states.

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The Democrats needs to stop dancing around this stuff and just set up a phased series of primaries which each inludes a balanced lineup of large and small states. This could be partially regional in nature to hold down travel costs, but overall there should be a clear set schedule running from New Hampshire through June.

The current “frontloaded” system is a total wreck. Many of the candidates wade through snow drifts most of the way as every state back leaps everyone else to get to be first. Remember when Super Tuesday actually meant something? (Like giving Jesse Jackson frontrunner status, in one of the marvelous unintended consequences of Democratic political history.) The wholr thing is pretty much done by mid-March, leaving months and months and months of abolutely nothing until the summer conventions.

This is not rocket science. Everyone has a map. We see which states are big, which states are small, which states are industrial and which states are rural. Figure out a reasonable schedule and nag the relevant states to set it up. The Reps might even go along with it because a lot of them have a similar complaint about the process.

Let’s have campaigns instead of drag races. It’s a helluva lot more interesting when you get to run instead of roar. It builds drama, builds momentum and never quite know where it'll take you. And isn't that what politics is all about?