Dems Mull Primary Roles of Iowa, N.H.

[Kazak]

Sat Mar 12, 4:24 PM ET


By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Iowa and New Hampshire, combined, have 4.2 million people — just 1.5 percent of the U.S. population. Yet Democratic presidential candidates spend months and millions of dollars each presidential cycle in those two states before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the first events in the party's nomination process.

 
Does it make sense to spend so much time and money to reach the same small fraction of the electorate each election? Should other states get a chance to hold the first contests in an election cycle?


A Democratic commission is examining those questions and other aspects of the primary calendar this weekend in Washington.

More...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050312/ap_on_el_pr/primary_scramble

[Kazak]

1. Hmmm...

'thought it was interesting, and relevant. Sorry if it's a dupe...I didn't see it on the front page.

[sasquatch]

2. Fuck Iowa

Move the caucas to all over the "Big Ten" athlectic confrence states.

[Kazak]

3. Well, at least they're looking at doing SOMETHING!

:crazy:

[Warpy]

4. Regional primaries might make more sense

Mid Atlantic, NY, New England; southern tier; midwest and mountain; west coast. The whole thing could be done in four months and provide as many as four candidates or as few as one to present to the convention. In the interest of fairness, the order would be rotated every four years.

A nearly year long campaign just to get to the convention is insane and gives entirely too much power to the two dinky states who are first in line. It's wasteful of party resources and exhausting for all the candidates.

Selecting candidates by region would make a lot of sense. Delegates would then select the candidate at the convention by who talks the best fight.

[question everything]

9. Indeed. And rotate the order, too n/t

[mikehiggins]

5. Neither state is representative of the party

If you want a true primary, have NY and California vote first. They are the strength of the Democratic Party and ONLY Democrats can vote in the Party's primary in either state.

[Kazak]

6. Yeah, but...

it's not often that the winner of the Iowa caucuses goes on to win the primaries is it? That was sort of a fluke that it went down that way in '04 wasn't it?

Note: not to be mistaken as an argument to keep things as they are.

[rfkrfk]

7. leadership needed

The current arrangement is seen by everyone as
stupid, selfish, and a historical leftover.
Leadership entails, sometime you make enemies.
Unfortunately, for the person advocating change,
that person would make new enemies, in NH and Iowa,
but unknown if that person would make new friends.
There is got to be someone who is not planning
on running for president, who could lead.
One complaint from some guy in Michigan, is not enough.

[shadowknows69]

8. I always thought this was a pretty useless tradition n/t