Iowa will still be first... but NH may no longer be 2nd in Dem primary?

[snowbear]

..."Under the newly adopted plan, the Iowa caucuses would remain first. Then would come one or two "diverse" caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire primary. One or two additional "diverse" primaries would be added before the calendar was opened to all states in early February of 2008.

Continued > http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=1715491&page=1

What do you think about the possible changes?

[NYdemocrat089]

1. When do primaries start?

I will we able to vote in Fall 2007, and I really want to be able to vote in the primaries.

[Renew Deal]

3. Early 2008

In NY, you can register after Jan. 1 of the year you turn 18. You should do that.

[NYdemocrat089]

5. Thanks!

:hi:

[Renew Deal]

2. I'm conflicted.

I think NH does a good job with it. They also get sick of it. It's lots of revenue for them, so they have a financial interest in keeping them. On the other hand, It's a big country and NH isn't representative. NH gave us Bill Clinton as a 2nd place finisher and McCain and I think they were correct. Kerry was the DNC's fault. They though they would need the time to raise money.

[radio4progressives]

4. It's about damn time!

This is about avoiding the front loading issue, but as or more importantly it is about allowing a more diverse region of the country have a role in early caucuse race turn out.

It's is so time for this...

Last year in a DNC committee meeting that was broadcast on C-Span, they were discussing this issue, and the vote on the proposal was unanimous it just hadn't been worked out as to where and when. I'm glad they've moved along this far, now it's time to nail the regions.

[snowbear]

6. It really is bizarre the way it's set up now if you think about it...

Look at how many states don't even figure in at all on the nominee..

You're right.. The more I think about it, the better it sounds to start making some changes like this..

[Redneck Socialist]

7. How does moving more primaries earlier avoid the front loading issue?

OK so I'm from NH so I'm biased, but having more primaries/caucuses earlier in the year helps nobody except those candidates already well known with a ton of money.

We need fewer early primaries. A longer primary season with the voting spread out more evenly throughout the year would give candidates more exposure and enable lesser known candidates to gain some traction.

[snowbear]

8. It looks like Dr. Dean is listening to the concerns of minorities..

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=4620930&nav=0RbQ

From the sounds of all the articles on Google, the Democratic Party has been toying with the idea of changing the dates for years.

Sounds like Dean is like that guy in those "less talk, more action" commericals.

[radio4progressives]

10. yep..

he's on a mission... and i say go dean go!

in the dnc committee meeting that i referred to up thread, Cesar Chavez's wife Delores Huerta and granddaugher Julie Rodriguez were a couple of members that I personally recognized among a few others, there african Americans and Native Americans as well as a few wonder bread types, but all in uninimity about needing the early caucuses/primaries to be outside of the wonder bread regions - or more accurately, that other regions of diverse populations needed to be included pre New Hampshire... there were concerns with dates, and even cancelling Iowa - lot of that stuff discussed and pros and cons debated, weighted. they had not come any hard decisions except that it was a major priority and that it was imperative that real actions in that regard was organized.

[radio4progressives]

11. hmm

It's impossible for me to report all of the issues that were raised at the meeting - but the certainty was that other diverse regions were always left out of the process in the early races - and you have to admit that has a huge impact on the outcome leading up to "super tuesday".

the plan as i understand it is to schedule two between Iowa and New Hampshire, what i remember is that New Hampshire comes up a few weeks after Iowa .. so I'm not sure what your issue is with scheduling two of them in betweeen?

[Redneck Socialist]

12. Few weeks? Eight days in 2004.

Iowa was on February 19th and NH followed eight days later on the 27th. Hard to campaign effectively in eight days and even harder in less time under the new plan. Unless of course you have a boatload of money and are already well known.

[TayTay]

14. They were in January.

I wish they were in February or even MArch. The whole calendar starts too early.

[madfloridian]

9. Dean's comments on primaries on CNN this morning.

I am not sure what he means by prewindow. He is being purposely vague, but there is definitely some change coming.


"BLITZER: Let me get your reaction to this proposal. As you know, for years the Iowa caucus was first going forward with the presidential nominee, followed by the first primary in New Hampshire. There's now a recommendation out there that after the Iowa caucus there be two other caucuses in other states that may be more diverse than Iowa or New Hampshire before there's the first primary in New Hampshire. Is this a good idea?

DEAN: Well, it's certainly a good idea to have more geographic diversity and more ethnic diversity in the Democratic nominating process. After all, we are the most diverse party, certainly in this country, and probably the most diverse party on the face of the earth in terms of the different kinds of people who keep us in power. And who we need to put us back in power.

So I'm very supportive of this notion that diversity, both geographic and ethnic, in the prewindow.

We are committed to leaving Iowa first as the first caucus in the country and New Hampshire as the first primary in the country.

BLITZER: But do you support adding two caucuses between those two events?

DEAN: Well, I'm not going to -- you know, there's some wriggle room. The only commitment I'm going to make to you right now is there will be earlier events, and there will be some events, or at least one event in between Iowa and New Hampshire, and there will be before the window somewhere between four and six events, including Iowa and New Hampshire. That's what the commission recommended. I haven't had a chance to sit down with the rules committee. But we will have diversity in the prewindow. "
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/12/le.01.html

[mrgorth]

13. I'm very worried about this

NH LOVES being where they are. I think they will take this as an affront and we may lose NH for the foreseeable future. Can't we just through a big, diverse state's primary, like, a couple days after NH? That way we don't piss them off but some of the spotlight fades?