Your Opinion: Changing The Way The Primaries Work (votes, thought, Democrats)

[LauraC]

You guys probably know all about the primary brouhaha between the DNC and the Democrats in Florida over the primary schedule. I don't want to rehash that here. What I want to ask you about is something called The Delaware Plan.

It divides the states into 4 groups by size and schedules primaries and caucuses at one-month intervals, starting in early March with the smallest ones and ending with the 12 biggest. The purpose is to keep the nomination contest open until the big states vote, making more states meaningful players and taking away the advantage the best-known, most heavily funded candidates now have. Lesser-known candidates would be able to become contenders with strong showings in smaller, less-expensive states.

It is also supposed to prevent the danger of the current system that someone could win a primary without much scrutiny although, I personally don't know how much MORE scrutiny of candidates there could possibly be.

You can read more about it here:

Rush to be of primary importance is out of hand (broken link)

Both political parties are apparently considering it for 2012.

But what do you think -- Do you like this idea or not?

I haven't thought it through yet as to good or bad but as a political junkie it certainly sounds more exciting to me than the current system.

[emjbulls]

I don't know if that idea would work or not, but it would be nice if all the votes in primaries were counted before any announcements were made.

In the last primary, being in Ohio, the vote I cast meant absolutely nothing because Kerry, not my choice, was the announced nominee even before I got a chance to choose.

[TnHilltopper]

LauraC, Just about anything would be an improvement at this point. It will not be long and primaries will be held during labor day festivities. The will be swearing a President in and an hour later someone will be declaring for the next election cycle. It is just out of hand right now and does a great disservice to the lesser candidates because it takes huge sums of money to keep up the pace with those candidates that have their own mints. Who knows, this may be part of the reason.

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by TnHilltopper

LauraC, Just about anything would be an improvement at this point. It will not be long and primaries will be held during labor day festivities. The will be swearing a President in and an hour later someone will be declaring for the next election cycle. It is just out of hand right now and does a great disservice to the lesser candidates because it takes huge sums of money to keep up the pace with those candidates that have their own mints. Who knows, this may be part of the reason.

I think this will be the last presidential primary where everyone is racing to be ahead of the pack.

As far as this Delaware Plan goes, I don't see a downside to it unless you are a state, like New Hampshire, Iowa, Florida or South Carolina, that is used to basking in the limelight of being first. I bet those states are the ones that won't like it. I don't see how it would make a difference along party lines. You know, if there are pros and cons, they should be the same for both Democrats and Republicans, right?

As far as the media goes and the political junkies like us, I just think it makes it much more exciting to build up to the primaries in the big states by having the smaller states go first. Anything could happen.