Illinois House Speaker (and state party chair) Michael Madigan (Chicago, D) plans to move the primary from March 18th to February 5th to help Barack Obama , but only four states - Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina - would be earlier than Illinois.
"These states are not representative of mainstream America. They're clearly not as representative of America as Illinois would be," Madigan said. "But if Barack is a candidate, recent history tells us the selection process may be finished before it reaches the Illinois primary."
This is great! (Full disclosure: I live in Chicago). In 2003 I was angry that my mid-march vote for Howard Dean didnt mean anything (unlike my vote for Obama ;) ). Illinois is a lot more diverse than Iowa and New Hampshire. The big urban vote was sorely missing in deciding the democratic nominee. Go to the flip to see the Illinois GOP's lame response ...
House Republican Leader Tom Cross wondered about the impact on voter registration deadlines and other administrative chores.
Ha Ha!
I think that big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco are simply being used as ATMS. Its time for us to vote early too. Heck, even the Governator wants to move his state's primary earlier.
Hell, this could hasten a national primary day.
Just how did Iowa and New Hampshire get so prominent in deciding our nominee?
Anyone not living in either of those two states disagree with Illinois moving the primary up?