clair017

This post is part of a series examining efforts -- both attempted and successful -- to move presidential primary election  dates for 2020  during the now-adjourning  2017-2018 state legislative sessions  in capitols across the country. While  shifts tend to be rare  in sessions immediately following a presidential election, introduced legislation is more common albeit unsuccessful more often than not. -- Rare are the times when Illinois has pulled up the stakes on its traditional third Tuesday in March primary to move elsewhere on the presidential primary calendar. In fact, the only time in the post-reform era legislators in the Land of Lincoln shifted what is called the general primary -- a consolidated primary that includes the presidential primary -- was ahead of a cycle when a favorite son was seeking the Democratic nomination. While other states are moving around from cycle to cycle, that just does not happen in Illinois. Like other states, Illinois ...

This post is part of a series examining efforts -- both attempted and successful -- to move presidential primary election  dates for 2020  during the now-adjourning  2017-2018 state legislative sessions  in capitols across the country. While  shifts tend to be rare  in sessions immediately following a presidential election, introduced legislation is more common albeit unsuccessful more often than not. -- Midway through the 2017 session of the West Virginia legislature then-state senator, Jeff Mullins (R-9th(A), Raleigh) introduced SB 33 . The intent of the bill was to uproot the biennial state primary -- which includes the presidential primary every fourth year -- from its traditional second Tuesday in May position to the second Friday  in February. Although the bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration, it was never taken up by the panel. It never received a hearing and languished there the rest of the session. There are a ...

This post is part of a series examining efforts -- both attempted and successful -- to move presidential primary election  dates for 2020  during the now-adjourning  2017-2018 state legislative sessions  in capitols across the country. While  shifts tend to be rare  in sessions immediately following a presidential election, introduced legislation is more common albeit unsuccessful more often than not. -- This is a fun one. During the 2017 Texas state legislative session, Rep. Lyle Larson ( R-122, San Antonio ) once again introduced proactive legislation to move the presidential primary (and all others that are traditionally consolidated with it in the Lone Star state) to the fourth Tuesday in January . HB 3180 would have had the same effect as the legislation Larson authored in 2015 . And it ended up in the same place: on the sidelines as the legislature wrapped up its business. This is a fun one because the committee discussion around it neatly encapsulat...

John DiStaso from WMUR in New Hampshire : Democratic National Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan said she expects a correction will soon be made to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee’s proposed 2020 schedule of early caucus and primary states to ensure no conflicts are on the horizon. ... Sullivan said that due to a clerical error, the draft discussed at the meeting two weeks ago set up a potential conflict between New Hampshire and Nevada – not unlike a major controversy that erupted on the Republican side in the fall of 2011 prior to the 2012 primaries and caucuses. ... “It was a mistake,” she said after conferring with DNC officials. “Everyone now understands and it was the intention that the calendar should be the same as it was in 2016.” In that year, the New Hampshire Primary was held on Feb. 9 and Nevada followed until 11 days later, Feb. 20. Placing Nevada just four days after New Hampshire in the proposed Rule 12.A was something FHQ raised in the aftermath of the DNC Rules and Byl...

It is strange what does and does not pick up steam on social media sometimes. When late last week I flagged the Astead Herndon article in the New York Times updating the Democratic efforts to finalize rules for the 2020 presidential nomination process, I was doing so more for personal reasons. As I explained in the remainder of the thread , I was more interested in bookmarking the article because there were several notes in it that deserved some attention if not pushback. The window of attention was much more immediate for FHQ, then, than it was seemingly taken by most. Again, whereas I meant to relatively soon get back to what I see as the flaws of the NYT piece, most took it as FHQ flagging the proposed rule change -- specifically the scaling back of superdelegates -- for a time, far down the road, when the unintended consequences of the change will potentially be felt. But the thing is, that overall story has not changed -- the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee continues to conside...

This post is part of a series examining efforts -- both attempted and successful -- to move presidential primary election  dates for 2020  during the now-adjourning  2017-2018 state legislative sessions  in capitols across the country. While  shifts tend to be rare  in sessions immediately following a presidential election, introduced legislation is more common albeit unsuccessful more often than not. -- For much of the post-2016 period, FHQ, in looking ahead to the 2020 cycle, has often raised the caucus-to-primary shifts in Colorado , Maine , and Minnesota . All three formerly caucus states in various ways laid the groundwork in 2016 for 2020 presidential primaries. But that trio of states is not alone in the switch. In its 2017 session, the Utah state legislature passed legislation -- which was ultimately signed into law -- to provide for a state-funded and run presidential primary option in the Beehive state for the 2020 cycle. And the motivation for ...

This post is part of a series examining efforts -- both attempted and successful -- to move presidential primary election dates for 2020 during the now-adjourning 2017-2018 state legislative sessions in capitols across the country. While shifts tend to be rare in sessions immediately following a presidential election, introduced legislation is more common albeit unsuccessful more often than not. -- During the spring of 2017, legislation was introduced in the Washington, DC Council to shift the date on which future primary elections in the district would be held. The impetus behind Councilmember Charles Allen's ( D-Ward 6 ) B22-0197 was multifaceted . Primarily, shifting local primaries out of September (to where the elections had been returned in 2014) was intended to ease pressure on district compliance with the federal MOVE act. The timeline of the certification for September primary winners threatened to overlap with the 45 day window required by the federal law to distribut...