There is an effort by some Democrats to end the NH Primary. The primary reasoning for this is that NH is not terribly diverse, and therefore is unqualified to be early in the presidential nominating process. This effort makes Democrats look petty and weak and it should fail.
The DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee voted 23-3 to push New Hampshire to third place in the 2008 Presidential nominating lineup. The vote recommended that the full DNC authorize an additional caucus between Iowa's leadoff caucus and the New Hampshire primary and an additional primary after New Hampshire's contest but before Feb. 5, 2008.
What was the headline for this headline news in an influential NH newspaper? DEMOCRATS PLAY RACE CARD
Come on. Is New Hampshire REALLY what's wrong with our elections? Really? Is the New Hampshire primary the biggest failure of our election system? Was it the NH Primary, or the Deibold machines that secured GW Bushes victory in 2004? We use paper ballots, by hand, with a pen... We don't have hanging chads. We don't have a corrupt election system like in Ohio, or Texas, where efforts exist to prevent people from voting. If you want to reform elections, focus on the real problems, not New Hampshire.
I'll grant you that New Hampshire isn't terribly racially diverse. They aren't called the White Mountains for nothing. But NH doesn't have a history of systematic discrimination, or segregation. People don't move here because it's COLD. There's more to diversity than Race. We have plenty of Religious Diversity, Economic diversity, Political Diversity, Diversity of Sexual Orientation, Diversity of Educational Background... Hey, half of us are women!
Has NH been making bad choices? If it weren't for NH, Howard Dean would not have been a serious contender in 2004. NH picked John McCain, not George Bush in 2000. The Republicans in NH are not the Christian Right, they are New England moderates. And the Democrats in NH are more progressive than most.
What would happen if the first primary were held in a larger, more diverse state, like California? A candidate would have to raise millions, enough to compete with Hillary, to even be considered in the race. When they were campaigning, it would be like a national campaign with big rallies, canned speeches, and talking points. FAKE like most elections today.
What happens in NH? A candidate needs to go from town to town, stopping and meeting people at coffee houses, and diners, or at town hall meetings wit 50 people. Big corporate money, or Hillary money, is less useful if you have to convince activists one on one to work for you. And the opinion of a concerned citizen in an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun, is more important than the canned statement in the New York Times or on Fox News. We need elections to be MORE like NH elections, not less.
We stand poised, in NH, to take the House and Senate in this election cycle. We are also capable of winning at least one more Democrat for the US Congress. The biggest rallying cry for Republicans here is that Democrats want to end the Primary. This effort by the DNC is like a great big pile of dog poo on the Democratic message in NH, and it may cost us the election.
And despite all this... no matter what the DNC does, it won't work. The DNC has no authority to change the NH primary. The date of the NH primary is set by the NH Secretary of State, and it is required to be the first in the nation by NH law.
"I fully expect that Secretary of State Bill Gardner will consider the actions of the DNC, and others... to determine whether they infringe on New Hampshire's primary tradition. And I will support fully any decision he makes to protect New Hampshire's primary, including moving up the date."-NH Gov. John Lynch
http://www.politicsnh.com/...
It doesn't matter how much Democrats elsewhere try, they won't take away the NH Primary. And they shouldn't. The NH primary is one of the only genuine things left in an American Election, and we need to keep it.