http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=63121NEW HAMPSHIRE Democrats are sending their national party a direct message: Don’t mess with the first-in-the-nation primary.
State party Chair Kathy Sullivan and other top Dems have endorsed former state chair Joe Keefe‘s new letter telling the Democratic National Committee’s calendar commission that any proposal to place more caucuses — even one — between the leadoff Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary won’t cut it.
The commission is scheduled to meet on Dec. 10 to recommend a 2008 nominating schedule to DNC Chair Howard Dean, who is expected to then send it to the DNC rules committee. The full DNC is the final decision-maker, but New Hampshire’s position is set out in a state law mandating that we remain “seven days or more” ahead of any “similar event.”
Carl Levin of Michigan is the one who is pushing the hardest to get away from the Iowa and NH primaries.
The commission’s stated purpose is to address caucus/primary calendar front-loading and bring more racial diversity up front.
Michigan’s delegation, led by commission member Sen. Carl Levin, strongly opposes the “privileged” positions of Iowa and New Hampshire.
Levin recently told The Associated Press it is essential to have additional contests before New Hampshire. Presumably, these would be in small states from different regions with large black or Hispanic populations in the South and the West.
“What I’m looking for is a change in the system that gives two states such a huge impact on who is nominated,” he said. Adding early events “actually would open things up. More candidates would have an opportunity to win at least one caucus.”
Web and news reports surfaced last month alleging a growing commission consensus on a plan to place two to four caucuses between Iowa and New Hampshire. Since then, local Democrats have had increasing “great concern that there is momentum behind the recommendation,” said Judy Reardon, who co-chairs a state party primary task force with Keefe.