2008 Woodie Awards
Florida primary move highlights broken presidential primary system
Matt Stearns
Issue date: 10/10/07 Section: News
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Parties set rules and dates, but self-interested states ignore them with little fear of meaningful consequence or much concern for the national interest. Would-be reformers tout a variety of fixes - which the states find lacking. Congress suggests that it might step in, but the Constitution may not allow it.
"States are tripping over each other to get to the front lines, and most of them are operating within the rules of the parties," said Ryan O'Donnell, spokesman for FairVote, a nonpartisan electoral-change advocacy group. "Clearly, the parties are failing to control the process."
The problems of the current primary-and-caucus nomination game are well documented: It's too fast, too expensive and each election cycle is accelerating the absurdity. Plus, Iowa and New Hampshire, two idiosyncratic early-voting powerhouses that barely reflect the rest of the country, play an outsized role in this electoral "Survivor."
The still-unsettled 2008 primary schedule is the worst one yet: With states leapfrogging one another to gain influence and attention, neither Iowa nor New Hampshire has formally scheduled its vote, which both states are determined will remain first and second, come what may.
This chaotic system encourages states to jockey for position and leads to overcrowded primary days, forcing campaigns to rely on barrages of negative ads, expensive television buys and quick fly-ins rather than engaging in substantive discussions with voters one state at a time over many months.
To be sure, national Democratic Party leaders stripped Florida of its convention delegates for moving its primary to Jan. 29, and Republicans took away half the state's delegates. The parties have threatened to do the same to an itchy Michigan, which is eyeing Jan. 15.
But that's hollow punishment: The delegates could be reinstated at the conventions, and states are betting that no party will want to anger activists in large swing states.
The nominations of both parties may well be decided by Feb. 5, "Super Duper Tuesday," when at least 19 states will hold primaries.
"The presidential nominating process is too important to our democracy to allow the pell-mell scramble to continue," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at a recent Senate hearing on overhauling the process. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., likened the system to allowing ESPN's "SportsCenter" to name the Super Bowl participants after two preseason games.
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