Florida moves 2008 presidential primary to January (29)

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Washington Post

By Michael Peltier
Reuters
Thursday, May 3, 2007; 2:38 PM



TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida lawmakers, hoping to give their state even more influence in U.S. politics, on Thursday moved up the state's presidential primary to the last Tuesday in January.

Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican who has been building a reputation as a moderate in the mold of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said he would sign the measure, which also orders most touch-screen voting machines to be replaced with equipment that will produce a paper trail.

The January 29 primary date aims to give an even larger role on the national stage to the state that decided the 2000 U.S. presidential election and put George W. Bush in the White House following a five-week legal battle over vote recounts that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Moving the primary, in which parties select their presidential candidates through open votes, would put Florida ahead of about a dozen states that have presidential primaries scheduled for February 5.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/03/AR2007050301261.html

[robinlynne]

1. of course they did.

[Pirate Smile]

2. OK - so will this end up pushing Iowa and New Hampshire into December?

From MYdd:

Iowa and New Hampshire In December? Fine With Me

by Chris Bowers, Wed Apr 04, 2007 at 03:41:43 PM EST

Currently, the Democratic primary / caucus calendar looks like this:

January 14th (Monday) Iowa
January 19th (Saturday) Nevada
January 22nd (Tuesday) New Hampshire
January 29th (Tuesday) South Carolina (Florida? Michigan?)
February 5th (Tuesday) National primary

Apart from the possibility of Florida moving up to January 29th, and the likelihood that Michigan would follow them, the sticky wicket preventing this calendar from being finalized is New Hampshire. Simply put, New Hampshire does not want Nevada to hold a caucus before them, and as such has threatened to move their primary to an earlier date.

However, what earlier dates could New Hampshire actually choose? A close look reveals they do not have many options. Consider the following conditions:

- New Hampshire will hold its caucus on a Tuesday. Or, at least I assume they will.
- Nevada is holding its caucus on Saturday, January 19th.
- New Hampshire will only move its primary to a point at least seven days before Nevada.
- Iowa will hold its caucus eight days before New Hampshire. Both Iowa and New Hampshire agree on this.
- Neither Iowa nor New Hampshire will hold their caucus / primary during, immediately following, or immediately preceding a major national holiday.

If New Hampshire wants to meet all of these conditions, it actually only has two options: Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 or Tuesday, December 11th, 2007. In order to meet condition #3, the latest Tuesday it could choose would be January 8th, 2008 However, since Iowa will not hold its caucus on New Year's Eve (condition #5), and would instead move to a period before the holidays, New Hampshire would follow and move its primary to an earlier date as well (condition #4). New Hampshire also would not hold its primary on either New Year's Day or Christmas--just not gonna happen. This leaves only December 11th, with Iowa on December 3rd, or December 18th, with Iowa on December 10th. Of those two choices, the latter is probably preferable to both Iowa and New Hampshire. For Iowa, it gives them a full two weeks after the Thanksgiving weekend before the caucus is held. For New Hampshire, it pushes them a little bit closer to the rest of the calendar, while also making it impossible for anyone to sneak in before New Year's.

In short, it seems as though has only two choices: accept the current primary / caucus calendar, or move back to December 16th. To tell you truth, I think I actually prefer a calendar with an earlier Iowa and New Hampshire to our current calendar. Check it out:

December 10th (Monday): Iowa
December 18th (Tuesday): New Hampshire
January 19th (Saturday): Nevada
January 29th (Tuesday): South Carolina, Florida, Michigan
February 5th (Tuesday) National Primary

I know it seems a little crazy, and I have long trashed New Hampshire and Iowa for their privilege, but... this... actually... works. Check out its many advantages:
New Hampshire and Iowa placated. They still get to go first--in fact, they get to go a lot earlier relative to other states in the current calendar. There is no way any state moves into a window that includes the holidays.

New Hampshire and Iowa reduced. The two "traditional" states will take place so much earlier than any other state, that whatever "momentum" candidates derive from those states will be significantly muted over five weeks later.

Diverse groups play important, early role. Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Michigan will effectively function as a second set of early contests to immediately precede Super Tuesday. This will allow for significant, early state voting representation for African-Americans, Latinos, union members, Jews, and ever region of the country.

Frontloading significantly eased. In this calendar, the primary / caucus season lasts for fifty-eight days, instead of twenty-three. This will give voters more time to decide, and give candidates more time to build up a national operation. In 2004, Kerry was severely lacking in nationwide staff after his early victories, including in states like Ohio and Florida, and this deficit might have cost him the election. At the same time, the primary season was over pretty much the same day it began in 2004, but with this calendar, from the start of the campaign until Super Tuesday voters would have a lot more time to make up their minds.

Almost everyone gets a voice: The national primary on February 5th will give more people a real say in determining the nominee than at any nomination process in two decades.
Nominee still decided early. With nine months between Super Tuesday and Election Day, there is plenty of time to rally around the eventually nominee.

I would have no problem whatsoever if this ended up as the Democratic primary / caucus calendar. In fact, I think I would prefer it. Maybe fixing the primary calendar requires Iowa and New Hampshire to move to mid-December. I say they go for it.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2007/4/4/154143/3291

[IA_Seth]

8. That looks good to me. n/t

[PassingFair]

3. That does it. I'M voting tomorrow.

As I vote, so votes the nation.

Note: I'm undecided.

[youngdem]

4. Can we move the election up? Then, I'm in.

Otherwise, we are gonna have to go to a Super Tuesday primary system, or else we are gonna have primaries six weeks after an election is over soon.

[Shakespeare]

5. We're already in line to have the super tuesday primary--looks like FL is just trying...

...to get the jump on NY and CA.

That's right, Florida. You go on with your bad self. :eyes:

[Justyce]

6. I don't understand-Why not just have one election day nationwide like the

regular presidential election? I don't like how they had time to do away with Dean last time after they didn't like how well he did in Iowa...

[Lurking Dem]

7. Gee.

Why don't we just move all the primaries for 2012 to January 21, 2009?

This move to push them earlier and earlier is completely bass ackwards.