Levin fires new salvo in primary war

[brooklynite]

Source: Politico.com

Sen. Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, threatened Wednesday to hold Michigan’s presidential nominating contest on the same day as the New Hampshire primary in order to end New Hampshire’s “cockamamie” first-in-the nation role.

“No state should have that dominant a role,” Levin said at a breakfast with reporters. “New Hampshire has a hammerlock, folks.”

While Michigan recently passed a law saying it would hold its primary on Jan. 15 — causing New Hampshire to say it would go no later than Jan. 8 — Levin said Michigan Democrats now could hold a caucus and move up to the same day as New Hampshire.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner told Politico, however, that he was prepared to keep New Hampshire first and once again raised the possibility he could hold the primary in December of this year.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1007/6521.html

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sigh!

Should the entire candidate selection process be thought through and a coherent and representative one be established? Yes.

Should this be fought out in the middle of an ongoing campaign? No

[Captain Hilts]

1. It makes for a more competitive primary process to start in small states. Levin's wrong. nt

[monktonman]

2. Why couldnt the primary dates be awarded by lottery?

am I missing something here?

[Captain Hilts]

3. Less well-known candidates have a harder time being competitive in large states. nt

[monktonman]

4. OK thats understandable but how does that jibe with the voters?

there seems to be a need to strike a balance.
Maybe a multi-tier lottery system based on state size?
It just doesn't seem fair that New Hampster and I-ota get
to basically choose who the nominee is going to be during
every election cycle.

I know a bunch of New Hampsterites and I wouldn't let them
tie my shoes let alone choose my president.
(hope your not from NH. just an inter-state joke.)

[Captain Hilts]

5. RI's seen as too liberal, so they could probably start with Delaware or MD, perhaps. nt

[Vinca]

7. Yuck, yuck. I'm from New Hampshire and I hope you trip on your shoelaces. nt

[adadem]

10. I agree 100%. System is not fair nor Democratic. n/t

[Dr.Phool]

6. I see that Florida doesn't have the only idiot Senator.

[Stuckinthebush]

8. Idiot?

Please elaborate.

[Dr.Phool]

9. Michigan and Florida both broke the primary rules that they agreed to.

They're getting sanctioned now for jumping the pack.

I call Bill Nelson and Durbin idiots. Had they waited until Feb. 5th to hod their primaries, there would be no problems. Now they're screaming like 2 babies, whose mother took their suckers away.

For the record, Nelson is my idiot.

[fujiyama]

11. Agree with the sentiment...

but why wasn't all this shit settled BEFORE the primaries? Levin and Nelson aren't going to go anywhere with this. The rules won't be changed in the middle.

[PFunk]

12. All this proves that the whole entire system needs to be overhauled-ASAP

Personally I think we should have a single runoff to select the 3-6 winning canadates. if not then the most diverse state should get the nod as being the first.