It’s madness I tell you... 
madness!
He knows! Now... 
we have to kill him!
Posted on 04/23/2007 7:53:03 AM PDT by areafiftyone
In what is quickly becoming the most ridiculous primary season ever devised by the hand of man, MI and NV have both moved their primary dates up and GA has taken a huge step forward in doing the same.
Nevada
State GOP officials voted this weekend to move the GOP caucus up to January 19 - the same date as the state Democrat caucus.
Michigan
State GOP officials voted last weekend to move the GOP primary up to February 5th, but also voted to move it to any date earlier than that if the Democrats should move their primary date before 2/5.
Georgia
Another southern state to move up its primary, Georgia passed a bill through the House and the Senate to move its primary to February 5 as well. The only hang up is that Senate bill differed slightly from the house bill (the House wanted to change the law so that 45% of the vote in a primary instead of 50% was enough to be declared the winner; the Senate wisely rejected the idea). The bill passed the House a couple weeks ago and the Senate yesterday, but now goes back to the House for final approval. It is expected to be passed this afternoon or tonight, making GA at least the 14th state to schedule their primary on 2/5.
Other States
North Carolina, Illinois, Rhode Island, Texas, and Connecticut are all working on legislation to move their primary to 2/5 as well. New Hampshire officials have said they will move the NH primary date prior to the Nevada caucus, and into 2007 if they have to. Some pundits are now expecting a NH primary in the fall of 2007. Likewise, South Carolina officials have said they value their “first in the south” status and will move their primary to before 2/2 in order to keep it as well (Florida is currently on 1/29, but their law states the FL primary will be on 2/5 or one week after the NH primary, whichever is earlier - meaning they will move up to a week after wherever NH moves to). And of course, Iowa officials have said they want to remain the first caucus in the country and will move up accordingly as well.
It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad primary season.
I will be anxious to see how all these new primary dates impact us down stream.
Seems like an awful quick realignment to me.
I wonder what it will mean to us 2-6-8-12 years from now?
It should be interesting. This whole election will be quick and fast. No lingering or taking your time in this election. Everything has to be done quickly to keep up.
Thank goodness people like you are filling our brains of mush with all the intel - appreciate that.
Are any states having their primary later than mid-February anymore???
It’s madness I tell you... madness!
He knows! Now... we have to kill him!
Just doing my mushy job! And I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!
Looks like most are moving to before Feb 5th. Almost all have done it.
The ironic thing is that all of this movement to earlier primary dates will make the general election cycle even longer. I would think this will make is even easier for third party candidates to mount a serious challenge to the major two since the general population will have more time to decide that they do not like either of the two major candidates.
from Wikipedia:
Phase One: Early Primaries
January 14, 2008 - Iowa
January 19, 2008 - Nevada
January 22, 2008 - New Hampshire[1]
January 29, 2008 - Florida[2]
February 2, 2008 - Alabama, South Carolina
Phase Two: Super-Tuesday
February 5, 2008 - (known as “Giga-Tuesday,” “Mega Tuesday,” or “National Primary Day”) -
Arizona, Arkansas, California[3], Georgia, Michigan, Delaware, New York, Missouri, New Mexico, New Jersey[4], North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia[5]
Phase Three: The Rest of the Race
February 9, 2008 - Louisiana
February 10, 2008 - Maine
February 12, 2008 - Maryland, Tennessee, Virginia
February 19, 2008 - Minnesota, Wisconsin
March 4, 2008 - Connecticut^, Georgia^, Massachusetts^, Ohio, Texas^, Vermont
March 11, 2008 - Mississippi, Washington
March 18, 2008 - Illinois^, Rhode Island^
April 1, 2008 - Kansas^
April 15, 2008 - Colorado
April 22, 2008 - Pennsylvania^
May 6, 2008 - Indiana, North Carolina^
May 10, 2008 - Wyoming
May 13, 2008 - Nebraska^
May 17, 2008 - Alaska
May 20, 2008 - Kentucky, Oregon^
May 27, 2008 - Idaho
June 3, 2008 - South Dakota
June 6, 2008 - Hawaii
June 9, 2008 - Montana
I do not think the Republican nominee will be known by February 5. Delegates are selected from each state by differing criteria, i.e., not necessarily winner-take-all.
Actually it won't. The candidate the Party power brokers want will get the required numbers of delegates to guarantee the nomination early. Then there's the possibility of a 9 month crash and burn. Could be funny.
I don’t like it.
I guess this was in the cards in the beginning. I wondered why campaigning started real early this time around. The candidates probably knew this was going to happen.
I foresee a Scrappleface along these lines soon:
ALASKA DECLARES ITS ‘08 PRIMARY “ALREADY HELD,” AWARDS DELEGATES TO THOMPSON, CLINTON
It is so screwy. FL by law will take place no later than one week after NH. So let say NH moves ahead of Thanksgiving some time then it will move too. SC will then likely move to the Friday or Saturday between NH and FL because NH nor SC want to vote on the same day. Iowa will of course move a week ahead of NH. Then My guess is other states will move to fill up the open Jan spots. The Feds need to step in.
I saw starting on Jan 8 with Iowa you have four straight week of one small state go (Iowa on the 8th, NH the 15, SC the 22, and NV on the 26 (Since they want a saturday date.) Then no states untill FEB 19 where one Area of the country (Say the North East) all vote. Then a the thrid Tuesday in March say the South all vote, then in April the Midwest/Plain states with Texas vote, then The Western states vote in May. Then in 2012 you change and the west is moved up to FEB and another state move back a month.
Both of the current major parties have used their status to loot the State Treasuries to fund the INTERNAL electoral process by which they both nominate GENERAL election candidates. This also gives the Courts and news media control of a purely internal party affair.
The Republican Party should take back its nominating process for President/Vice President and Electors from the State Legislatures. Make the press follow the nomination process and time-frame that the National Party decides.
dvwjr
Here is why: I've found it irritating that itty bitty places like New Hampshire is where candidates spend all their time and money like somehow the populous is smarter (both parties) in smaller states or a particular geography.
The MSM then jumps on whatever perspective candidate bandwagon it wants at that moment, creating an artificial campaign leader.
It will also stop a lot of the cross-over primary vote nonsense. In MI for example where the dem candidate appeared to be solid (Kerry) they jumped over to vote for McCain who won the state in an effort to railroad Bush. It worked in this case.
Additionally, this notion of a concentrated primary season will more closely mock the Electoral College and where the votes are that do the actual 'electing.'
And finally this process as far as power is concerned is the antithesis of how the U.S. Senate works - you don't have disproportionate little states bullying the big ones (party affiliation not relative).
Terrible.
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