Florida Republicans broke party rules and set their party’s presidential primary election for Jan. 31, next year.
Undeterred, South Carolina Republicans scheduled their first-in-the-South presidential primary for Jan. 21, trumping Florida by 10 days.
Of course, the rules set by the Republican National Committee says caucuses in Iowa and Nevada, and primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, are to lead the pack. Florida’s Jan. 31 move violated those rules and will simply force the other early states to get in line ahead of Florida, pushing the nominating process earlier and earlier in the year. Iowa now says it will go Jan. 3.
This gamesmanship that happens every four years borders on the ridiculous. It’s time for the political parties to abandon their archaic rules that give too much power to a handful of tiny, nonrepresentative states. It gives short shrift to the rest of the nation.
Instead, this country needs a regional presidential primary system where different sections of the country take turns being first in line every four years. If the political parties cannot sort this out, perhaps it’s time for federal legislation dictating a regional primary system.
Remember the debacle of 2008 when states leapfrogged one another in an attempt to get to the front of the nominating line? States were so eager to be at the front – they pushed the process so far forward – that there were campaign commercials running on television in some markets at Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2007, a full year ahead of the presidential election.
We believe Washington’s Secretary of State Sam Reed had the right idea when he proposed a rotating regional primary system where the country would be divided into four sections with primary elections in March, April, May and June. The four regions – East, South, Midwest and West – would rotate for the coveted March primary.
It’s a sound recommendation that’s “logical, orderly and fair,” to use Reed’s words.
That’s certainly not the case with today jumbled mess. We suspect that most voters – Democrat, Republican and independent – would likely agree.
Secretaries of state for both parties have pressed for a regional primary system for years. Unfortunately, it’s the party hacks that insist on sticking with the status quo.
In testimony to a subcommittee of the Republican National Committee in the fall of 2009 Reed reminded party officials about the 2008 White House race in which 37 states and the District of Columbia voted by the end of February. In the 2000 presidential election, only nine states had voted by the end of February. Clearly the trend is for states to hold their primaries earlier and earlier.
That’s wrong. The campaign is already too long.
Under the plan of secretaries of state, traditional leaders Iowa and New Hampshire would keep their earliest-in-the-nation honor, and then cluster the other states into geographic regions, mixing small, medium and large states.
Reed said, “By design, the plan encourages candidates to become well-versed on issues facing all regions of the U.S., not just those taking priority in early primary states. Candidates, voters and political party members are increasingly frustrated and confused by our seemingly arbitrary and chaotic process. It is time to establish a process that gives every state and its voters a reasonable opportunity to play a role in the selection of the presidential nominees, with results that are representative of all regions of the country.”
We agree.
The intransigence of the party leaders has created an unworkable system that sees candidates dropping out of the race after just a handful of states have selected their frontrunners.
The nominating process has become so meaningless that the Washington Legislature, upon Reed’s recommendation, canceled this state’s presidential primary election in order to save $10 million. Washington will rely on the unrepresentative caucus system to choose its delegates to the Democrat and Republican nominating conventions in 2012.
Given party leadership at the federal and state level, it may be a lost cause, but Secretary of State Sam Reed and his colleagues deserve credit for their continued efforts to press for a regional presidential nominating system.
It’s far superior to today’s dysfunctional nominating system.
