A Primary State of Disorder

I was fortunate to be invited as a guest of Professor Dotty Lynch to a discussion at the Capitol this afternoon regarding pending legislation that would subject the party primary calendar to federal control. With concern about this coming election's primary rush and heavy front-loading, some law makers and party officials are concerned about the negative effect that could result.

Taking part in the discussion were Professor Lynch, US Representative David Price, US Representative Sander Levin, David Norcross - chairman of the Republican National Convention's Committee on Arrangements for the 2004 Republican Convention, and the moderator, Professor James Thurber.

Congressman Levin presented a possible solution to the primary problem that he has been promoting. His idea involves dividing the country into sections of states. One group of states from each region would go on the same election date. This would be determined by lottery and rotate each cycle. While it is a plausible solution to the problem of front-loading the primaries, I think that dividing the nation up into regions that may or may not coincide with the naturally pre-established regional feelings and identities that already exist. Asking people from different states to subject themselves to a random lottery to determine their primary date will only create more unrest and frustration with the primary system.

It does appear that some action needs to be taken to change primaries are conducted so that candidates won't ignore those small states that take on pivotal roles because of their early primaries. Whatever kind of solution Congress comes up with to straighten out the crazy primary calendar will likely have to wait. It is too late to implement new legislation for the 2008 election, and whoever wins next year will likely be unwilling to change the system that helped get them elected. It is something to look ahead to though.