|
Who votes first? The Early Bird Catches the BuzzBy Rick Horowitz Maybe they can all just vote yesterday. Or to put it another way: Here we go again. In the never-ending quest for prominence and influence and large numbers of pundits hanging out at your hotel bars instead of somebody else's hotel bars, the hardworking leaders of the South Carolina Republican Party have grabbed hold of the Decision 2008 presidential game board and given it a great big shake. Of course they did. Everybody else did. So why shouldn't South Carolina get in on the action? Time to take the old cut-and-paste key to the old election calendar, boys and girls. Everything you thought you knew, you don't. For instance? Once upon a time, the 2008 South Carolina primary was going to be held on February 2. This would not only preserve its honored position as the "first in the South" primary, but might actually have some impact on the 20-odd states -- including such biggies as New York and California -- scheduled to vote just three days later, on February 5, now widely referred to by the 13 people who care about such things as "Tsunami Tuesday," or "Super Duper Tuesday," or..
New York? California? Wait a minute, you say -- don't their primaries always come much later in the season, after the nominations have been pretty much sewn up? Exactly right, and the Empire State and the Golden State were pretty much fed up with bringing up the rear all the time, which is why this time around, they decided to join the mob in early February. Still with me? Good -- because now it starts to get complicated. Florida (Remember Florida? There once was a presidential election decided in Florida -- maybe you heard about it.) was originally scheduled to have its primary on March 11, but with all these other folks moving up, Florida started to worry that it would be the one missing out on the fun. So what did Florida do? It switched its primary from March 11 to January 29. Good for Florida. Bad for South Carolina. See, if you take another gander at your calendar, you'll notice something very interesting about January 29: It comes before February 2. In fact, there isn't a single day in all of January that doesn't come before February 2. And February 2 is...? The scheduled date of the South Carolina primary. The "first in the South" primary. And Florida is...? Also in the South. And South Carolina is...? Ticked off. So ticked off, in fact, that it's mounting a counterattack -- at least on the Republican side. South Carolina's Republicans have now decided to move their primary up to January 19, ten days ahead of Florida. Still with me? Good -- because now it starts to get really complicated. South Carolina moving even one party's primary to January 19 puts the squeeze on New Hampshire, home of -- all together, class! -- the "first in the nation" primary. New Hampshire is just a little bit protective of its "first in the nation" status; in fact, New Hampshire state law requires its primary to occur at least a week before any other primary, while state tradition puts that primary on a Tuesday. Until now, it's been scheduled for January 22. But if South Carolina is voting on January 19, the latest New Hampshire can vote would be January 12, and the latest Tuesday it could vote would be January 8. Have we mentioned Iowa yet? Iowa has a state law, too. Iowa's state law requires Iowa's "first in the nation" caucuses to be held at least eight days before anyone else does anything. Iowa was originally looking at January 14, but if I've got the math right, and New Hampshire moves its primary to January 8, the 2008 Iowa caucuses couldn't happen any later than -- 2007. Have a nice day. Posted 8/10/07. On
any day (in any year), click to "Rick's" for the best in commentary
|
  |
Rick Horowitz
