Florida's Democratic Party announced today that they will be holding their Presidential Primary on January 29. Undeterred by threats from the National Party to withhold 210 of Florida's nominating convention delegates, Florida's Democratic Party feels that the attention their state will now get from potential candidates out weighs the resulting sanctions.
Responding to the ever increasing appeal for states to front load, the National Party had attempt to prevent most states from holding primaries prior to February 5th with threats of sanctions. 4 states were granted permission from the National Party to hold their primaries before February 5th. Those states and their corresponding primary dates are: Iowa on January 14, Nevada on January 19th, New Hampshire on January 22nd, and South Carolina on January 29th. Why the National Party is set on granting these 4 states earlier primary dates and subsequently more influence on and attention from hopeful Democratic candidates is beyond me. It certainly isn’t because these 4 states represent a balanced cross section of Americans. Which is why it is not surprising that larger and more diverse states, such as Florida, are willing to break ranks with national leadership and put their constituents in a position to be heard. I also don’t understand why all primaries, Democrats, Republicans, and third party alike, aren’t held at the same time. If the rational behind granting these specific states an earlier primary date is an attempt to balance the influence of large states and small states, then I find that reasoning unacceptable. Each citizen of the U.S., regardless of what state they reside in, should have equally proportioned influence and representation in our federal government.
2 comments:
Front loading is getting crazy, too many primaries too early. Florida is making a risky move defying the DNC.
Nice post.
I can understand Florida's reasoning to a degree and anyway, why should they be afraid of the DNC and Howard Dean? Since Florida has so many delegates it would be impossible to ignore. Couldn't the eventual Democratic nominee just promise to resotre Florida's delegates when they get to the convention? I can't see Dean actually holding his ground against that kind of pressure. It would be especially cool to see considering how much the Clintons dislike Dean (earlier this year Hillary and her allies in the House and K Street, namely Harold Ickes, Rahm Emmanuel and Terry MacAlliuff tried to create a national database against the DNC's wishes on which voters to target).
Btw, I replied to your comment.
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