Scan-N-Land

Can voters get more than a few weeks to pick the next presidential nominees?

That's essentially what's on the agenda at this afternoon's meeting of the national Democratic party's rules committee.

Party officials are talking about creating incentives for states to hold presidential primary elections and caucuses later in the calendar year. The plan would give states that hold their elections in April or later extra delegates at the 2008 Democratic presidential nominating convention.

Right now, a number of big states are talking about holding presidential eliminations sooner rather than later, so that their voters get a chance to have a say in picking the nominees.

"In California, by the time we get to the primary, there's nothing much going on," says Alice Huffman, one of the state's a national committee members. California held its 2004 primary in June, long after Sen. John Kerry wrapped up the party's presidential nomination.

The idea behind the Democrats' incentive system -- which the rules committee voted Saturday to recommend to the full national committee -- is to end a vicious cycle that is basically shrinking the process of selecting presidential nominees down to a few frantic weeks in the winter.

I remember being in Michigan during the 2004 presidential campaign and watching Democratic candidates essentially abandon the state -- the first state in the primary process with a significant industrial base and a significant black population -- because momentum for John Kerry was building so rapidly that Howard Dean decided to make a last stand in Wisconsin.

As a result, the Democratic presidential contest was wrapped up without the candidates ever being forced to debate the problems of Michigan, a state that has suffered huge losses of manufacturing jobs because of outsourcing.

--kkiely

posted by Mark H. @ 12/02/2006 03:45:00 PM