A lot of calenders have changed. When is your state primary?

[hedgehog]

New York State's Primary is now February 5, moved there from March 4. (and heck - it used to be in April!)

Candidates begin to collect signitures for ballort petitions October 30.

[still_one]

1. Here is a link from Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_primary#Calendar

[hedgehog]

2. Holy moly - New York and California just 2 weeks after New Hampshire!?!?

I know that no state wants to be left out, but this is crazy! I don't know what is worse, having candidates drop out because they don't have the money to campaign or to have the season come and go before people have a chance to think! IMO, this exaggerates the influence of the earliest primaries even worse than it's been in the past!

[goodgd_yall]

4. Essentially we'll know the winner by early February

The states that still have May and June as their primary months must really feel disempowered.

I like it that California will have more influence though, rather than just going along with what other states have decided.

[hedgehog]

7. The problem is that unless you're a political junkie, you have no idea what

is going on with the campaigns. How many people even know that there have been debates, let alone watched them? The networks aren't going to broadcast the same stump speeches night after night. It would be nice if they broadcast the stump speeches at least once, though.

[still_one]

15. I agree, but I think the parties actually want it that way so they don't snipe at each other to long

in the primaries

Personally, I think a long primary season is a good thing, because you get to see exactly the differences between your parties candidates. Unfortunately, it is the big money that wants to choose our candidates for us, thus the shortened primary season

[glowing]

3. Well, FloriDuh is Jan 29th.. It will be interesting now that the candidates

are boycotting us.

[hedgehog]

5. I remember some wild conventions in the past

I have visions of two Florida delegations showing up, one tied to one candidate, the other tied to another. Get ready for some floor fights!

[NoPasaran]

10. I love good old-fashioned floor fights!

I remember when conventions actually made a few decisions. Modern conventions are about as exciting as a session of the Supreme Soviet.

[hedgehog]

14. Sometimes it was a literal floor fight.

[goodgd_yall]

6. Here's a more complete link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29_presidential_primaries%2C_2008

[hedgehog]

8. Any idea which states award delegates proportionately and which

are winner take all?

[NoPasaran]

11. The McGovern reforms did away with winner-take-all after 1972

[hedgehog]

12. I'm showing my age.

I can remember when people argued about the California primary because it was winner take all. People said that RFK should repudiate his delegates and redistribute them to the other candidates. Sirhan Sirhan took that problem away from us.

[hedgehog]

13. I'm showing my age.

I can remember when people argued about the California primary because it was winner take all. People said that RFK should repudiate his delegates and redistribute them to the other candidates. Sirhan Sirhan took that problem away from us.

[slipslidingaway]

9. This site compares 2004 and 2008...

ours (NJ) is now in February, it had been June.


2 pages
http://archive.stateline.org/flash-data/Primary/2008_presidential_primaries.pdf