Some talk about California moving primary up

[demdiva]

MSNBC is posting an excerpt from an article that will appear in the January 15th edition of Newsweek.

Anyone know more about this? How realistic is this and what impact would it have on a Kerry presidential run? It looks like the California primary would still come after Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

In the article, of course, they only talk about the move helping Hillary/McCain, but I think it may also benefit Senator Kerry. He has a long history supporting environmental causes ... and the book with Teresa will be out by then too. Additionally Senator Kerry is likely to have the $ and infrastructure to get through this intense primary where others may not.

Exclusive: Arnold's Primary Plan

Jan. 15, 2007 issue - The U.S. Constitution prevents Austria-born Arnold Schwarzenegger from running for president. But California's GOP governor, sworn in last week for a second term, still plans on influencing the 2008 election. Schwarzenegger says he'd like to move the California primary from June—when both parties have all but picked their nominees—to a much earlier date, in February. "We shouldn't be treated as a leftover," Schwarzenegger told NEWSWEEK while at home in Los Angeles, where he was recovering from a broken leg after a skiing accident. "We will go and make a lot of noise about the issues." The governor hopes the change will encourage candidates to spend more time talking to voters in the nation's most populous state, instead of "sucking us dry for money" at fund-raisers. "We don't want to sit back and let this whole thing go by and have California not be a player," he says.

-snip-

Moving up the primary certainly increases California's visibility among candidates—and puts the Golden State's environmental concerns on the agenda.

-snip

Currently, presidential campaigns are built around creating momentum in Iowa and New Hampshire—whose white, rural populations are notoriously unrepresentative of the country at large—then move on to the Southern states, which tend to favor more-conservative candidates. In 2008, Nevada will become the first Western state to intervene by holding its Democratic nominating caucus in January. Adding liberal California to the early mix would probably affect the nominating process by favoring big-money, big-name candidates such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16498074/site/newsweek/

Another interesting article on NH primary schedule from last year .. I'm sure our Mass friends are tuned into this ...
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/08/22/democratic_tantrums_in_nh/

[MBS]

1. I wish the Dem Party or someone could stop this idiocy

of bunching up the primaries so close together. It's a disservice to the voters, the candidates, and the democratic process. And it's absolutely nuts to put a mass-market-media-politics state like CA (the inventor of media politics) on the front end. . The primaries are virtually the only time the candidates have a chance to meet the voters one on one, or at least in smallish groups.. that's why it's always made sense to me to have a few small states, like Iowa, NH, and the like, in the very beginning. You just can't have a reasonable primary by bunching all the states into Jan and Feb. No one gets to meet the candidates, the candidates don't get to meet the voters, and there's too much pressure to raise too much money too soon.

[mloutre]

2. Either that or just hold them all at the same time

Rather than spreading them out over several months, just give the candidates those many months to make their case and then hold every state's primary on the same day. That way nobody gets to cut in line before anybody else.

[MBS]

3. another way to handle the quest of every state to be first

would be to have a system that kept the primaries spread out, from Feb to May, but rotated the order of the primaries every 4 years. (But Iowa and New Hampshire, IMHO, have earned their right to be first).
Kind of like emperor penguins keeping warm through the Antarctic winter: they rotate so that no one is left out in the cold. (No, don't remind me about some of those gruesome scenes from March of the Penguins).

[sandnsea]

4. This really will front load it

I don't understand why people don't see how bad this is going to be. It'll guarantee people with money will have the advantage, exactly the opposite of what the netroots says it wants. It might be good for Kerry, but I don't think that's worth the harm it'll cause the primary process in the long run.

[YvonneCa]

5. My understanding of this issue...

...as a California resident for a long time...is that Californians have wanted our primary earlier so that we get to vote before the primary season is nearly over. We've had a June primary forever and many of us (both Democrats and Republicans) feel that the candidate decision is already decided by June. At the least, many of our favorite candidates have already been eliminated. I thought I had heard about maybe moving it to March...which would be a big improvement.IMHO

To add insult to injury...during Presidential elections, we also deal with the time change. Polls are open until 8:00 (11:00 EST). At 5:00, when many of us are just getting off work and stopping to vote...the media is projecting winners. It depresses turnout. The media is trying to fix this, but...again...it FEELS like we get no say.

[kerrygoddess]

6. In '04 we were in Super Tuesday - Edited

Which was early March if I am not mistaken. Then I think they moved up to June again.

Edited to add:

Super Tuesday 04 was March 2:

Kerry prepares for battle with Bush
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/02/elec04.prez.main/index.html




A note on the photo above, I looked at this and thought jeez that little face over JK's right shoulder looks like my daughter and sure enough it is.

[YvonneCa]

7. Your daughter...

...in the picture with John Kerry...VERY cool ! Thank you for the information.

I do remember voting in March, 2004.

P.S. Are you watching the Malibu fire? It's so sad. :(

[kerrygoddess]

9. Wasn't watching

the Malibu fire, but very sad indeed.

I personally think the March primary was good in '04 and felt the '06 primary was too late out here this last year.

[YvonneCa]

10. Agreed. n/t

[JI7]

8. bad idea for California to be anywhere up front

campaigns in California are run entirely throught the media. that's how Arnold won. the media didn't report on anything Angelides did. it's like there wasn't even a campaign going on according to him.

and because Arnold had his corporate plus asshole hollywood friends fund his campaign he also put out a bunch of bs ads talking about how great he is.

people in california can be easily manipulated. abortion and gun control are the only issues people are very liberal on.

on the rest they lean Dem but can be easily fooled by the corporate powers who fill the airwaves with ads.