It’s good to see that the DNC still believes in enforcing the rules and not letting a big state like Florida throw it’s weight around and wreck up the Democratic primary schedule any more than it already is. Florida was hoping that their sheer size and importance would get the DNC to roll over for their glory grab. Well, that plan failed. Now Florida should save face and move their primary to a reasonable date in February.
This crisis should prompt the national party to take reasonable measures to stop this insanity of front-loading the primaries and adopt a rational rotation of regional primaries. States like Iowa and New Hampshire, who mindlessly guard their first in the nation status like a neurotic dog with a tasty bone, also need to be bitch-slapped into placing the needs of the party over their parochial interests. Our primary system is totally fucked, and we can fix it by exercising some political will; we don’t even need Congress to get involved. It’s probably too late for this cycle, but like the Florida debacle in 2000 should have prompted a rational response to election reform, Florida in 2007 should prompt a movement to fiz our primary calendar. Of course, this isn’t always a rational country… The RNC nearly adopted a rotating regional system a few years back, surely the DNC can do better.
Arizona isn’t immune from the pack mentality, either. Although there is clearly a case for Arizona to hold it’s primary on Tsunami Tuesday, Napolitano clearly made her decision within the parameters of a broken system. Her choice was perfectly reasonable, but reflects perverse incentives. Arizona is not likely to receive additional attention by being part of Tsunami Tuesday, but there would be no chance of having a greater effect by doing anything else.
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I guess I disagree with everybody on this.
I think that California should always be one of the first states to have a primary election. Why? Because more than 10 percent of the population of the whole country lives there. And because California has a very diverse population, contrary to what the crackers and hayseeds in the South might think, and with that many people voting you find out who the most electable candidate is.