Dems Give Preliminary Nod to Earlier Primaries
March 12, 2006 — -- The Democratic Party doesn't know exactly how it is going to change its presidential nominating process. But after Saturday's meeting of the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee, the party has agreed, at least in principle, on what it is seeking: It is looking for states with lots of Hispanics, African-Americans, and union members that are not too big and that are not in the Midwest or Northeast.
Under the newly adopted plan, the Iowa caucuses would remain first. Then would come one or two "diverse" caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire primary. One or two additional "diverse" primaries would be added before the calendar was opened to all states in early February of 2008.
New Hampshire's secretary of state told the Associated Press that he will consider whether he must move up his state's primary to comply with New Hampshire law that requires it to be scheduled a week or more before any "similar election." Democrats are hoping to head off New Hampshire from making such a move by specifying that the one or two contests that would go before the Granite State would be "caucuses" (not primaries).
States interested in holding one of the early contests are asked to submit their bids by April 14. The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee will then hear from state party chairs on April 20 when the full DNC meets for three days from April 20-22 in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans.
The panel's co-chairs -- former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman and James Roosevelt, Jr. -- told ABC News that they hope to come up with a consensus recommendation after the April meeting in New Orleans with regards to which specific states ought to go early and present that consensus recommendation to the Rules and Bylaws Committee's June meeting.
The plan must then be approved by the full DNC at the party's fall meeting in August or September.
The new "early" states are expected to come from the West and the South to balance the current representation of the Midwest (through the Iowa caucus) and the Northeast (through the New Hampshire primary). The new early states are also expected to be small states to preserve retail politicking and to avoid allocating too many delegates so early in the process that votes in later states lose their political significance.
There are some signs that the co-chairs' have their work cut out for them.
When Don Fowler, a former DNC chairman from South Carolina who serves on the Rules and Bylaws Committee, was told by ABC News that Herman and Roosevelt want to present the committee with a unified recommendation at its June meeting, Fowler said, "I doubt the committee would accept that."
One Democrat familiar with the selection process thinks the possible early states are New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada from the West, and South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas from the South. Democrats involved in the process think the party is likely to add one state from the West (in order to get the Hispanic diversity the party is seeking) and one state from the South (in order to get the African-American diversity they party is seeking).
Even though the plan adopted on Saturday entertains the possibility of picking as many as two early caucuses and two early primaries, the private consensus among Democrats attending Saturday's meeting in Washington, DC was that the party would only select one early caucus and one early primary given the tight windows.
Michigan's Debbie Dingell and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich. were instrumental in getting the party to reconsider its calendar, but the private consensus among Democrats attending Saturday's meeting seems to be that Michigan is too big population-wise to be one of the new states at the head of the pack. But in order not to alienate any state, the party has not imposed any hard-and-fast rules as to which states will be allowed to apply to go early.
States will be asked to specify whether they would like to hold a caucus or a primary as well as the feasibility at the state level of holding such a contest.