Primary Changes

Via Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars, Jerome Armstrong at MyDD has the changes the Democratic National Committee is making to the Presidential primaries.

This seems like a significant change of rules for the DNC nominating process. If adopted, the superdelegates would remain with the status of being a delegate (there is not a decrease in number), but they would no longer be able to decide who to vote for based on their own, but instead rely upon the contests in their states.

That should put an end to the endless and ludicrous speculation about super delegates overturning the decision of primary voters that distorted coverage of the 2008 race.

But for me, the far more important though insufficient change is this one:

The recommendations include pushing back the window of time during which primaries and caucuses may be held; converting unpledged delegates (DNC members, Democratic Members of the House and Senate, Democratic Governors and Distinguished Former Party Leaders) to a new category of pledged delegate called the National Pledged Party Leader and Elected Official (NPLEO) delegates, which will be allocated to Presidential candidates based on the state wide primary or caucus results; and establishing a “best practices” program for caucus states to improve and strengthen their caucuses. Under the Commission's recommendations - the pre-primary window could not begin until February 1st or thereafter, and the primary window could not begin until the second Tuesday in March or thereafter.

My preference would be for 10 regional primaries, spread out over 10 weeks from March 1 to May 15, in rotating order, but preventing pre-primary caucuses from starting before Thanksgiving 2011 is a good step forward.

Now, it's time for Kentucky to join the 21st Century and re-schedule its presidential primary to a date before the primary is already decided. And no, the nomination was not still undecided before Kentucky's May 20 primary in 2008. Barack Obama's nomination became inevitable in April.

Secretary of State Trey Grayson, republican candidate for Senate this year, might keep in mind that in 2012, the republican presidential primary is going to be 2008 squared. If Kentucky's primary takes place in March instead of May, it could play a major role in choosing the person who will challenge Barack Obama for re-election.