Earlier this week, Carolina Journal reported on a proposal to move North Carolina’s presidential primary from May to March. Now John Gizzi of Human Events offers a national perspective on the topic:
It does seem a pretty good bet that the “Big Four”—the Iowa caucuses, the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, and the commencement of the Nevada caucuses—will all remain the traditional openers of the presidential sweepstakes. The national GOP has enacted rules that say any states that hold primaries that get in the way of these states going first will be penalized delegates. …
… So far, Republican National Committee sources told HUMAN EVENTS, no state party has threatened to go before the early states, but several are discussing moving up their states after the Big Four are finished with their primaries and caucuses.
Michigan’s GOP National Committeeman Saul Anuzis believes that “by breaking the rules, states can play a bigger role in the nomination process—even if penalized.” He recalled how Michigan held a January primary in ’08 (when Anuzis was state chairman) and thus became a bigger player in the nomination process, even after paying the penalty and having a smaller convention delegation.
Another party rule passed with an eye on discouraging front-loading requires states that hold primaries before April 1 to select delegates proportionally and not hold a winner-take-all primary.
But most of the state party chairmen who spoke to HUMAN EVENTS would clearly like to see the process stretched out, with more time given to scrutinizing candidates than in ’08. The idea of nominating a candidate early, many fear, favors a better-known candidate and the specter of picking someone because “he’s paid his dues.”
