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December 13, 2005

New Primary System

I wanted to let you all know about one of the projects that I have been working on since our win in the November Special Election. I am a member of the Democratic National Committee's Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling. It is the Commission’s job to study every aspect of our Party's presidential nominating schedule to develop a 2008 primary and caucus calendar that best reflects our Party’s values.

On Saturday, we held our last meeting in Washington, D.C. The Commission concluded that we should recommend that more states be involved in early voting alongside Iowa and New Hampshire, but before the calendar opens up on February 5th. Our official recommendation reflects the Commission’s view that we need to add states to the early process of selecting a presidential nominee to better reflect the ethnic diversity of our nation. The two states will be determined at a later date, but they will be caucus states.

The Commission is made up of a mix of elected officials, DNC members, representatives of State Parties, academics, organized labor officials, grassroots activists and other Party leaders.

Here are our recommendations:
"a. That the first caucus be held in Iowa and the first primary be held in New Hampshire.
b. That there be an additional one or two first-tier caucuses between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
c. That following the New Hampshire primary, and prior to the opening of the regular window on February 5, 2008, there be one or two presidential preference primaries.
d. That the Rules and Bylaws Committee select the appropriate date on which the pre-window period shall begin, which date shall under no circumstances be earlier than January 14, 2008.
e. That the Rules and Bylaws Committee determine that (other than Iowa and New Hampshire) whose contests may occur during the pre-window period, applying the following criteria: racial and ethnic diversity; regional diversity; and economic diversity including union density.

The Commission desires to ensure, to the greatest extent possible, that the inclusion of additional contests in the pre-window period not exacerbate the problem of front-loading. … The Commission urges the Rules and Bylaws Committee, in selecting the states (in addition to Iowa and New Hampshire), whose contests will be allowed to occur in the pre-window period, to consider an appropriate means to limit the aggregate number of delegates allocated through pre-window contests.”

Regarding the timing of the stages of the primaries, “the Commission proposes that:
The calendar be divided into the following five time stages:
Stage I: March 4 through March 17, inclusive
Stage II: March 18 through April 7, inclusive
Stage III: April 8 through April 28, inclusive
Stage IV: April 29 through June 10, inclusive”

As a result, California will receive 40 percent more delegates under this plan. This would result in California having approximately 140 more delegates to our National Convention in 2008.

In addition, I offered an amendment to the Commission’s final report, which was adopted unanimously, that the DNC seriously consider the American Plan for implementation in the 2012 presidential election cycle. The American Plan is an innovative approach to scheduling primaries. It spreads the nomination calendar across ten intervals of time and randomly selects the order of the states one presidential cycle to the next. Any given state would have an opportunity to be earlier or later in the calendar. This would expand retail politicking to other smaller states. The American Plan is designed to solve the problem of “front-loading.” Over the last twenty years, more and more states have scheduled their primaries increasingly earlier in attempts to capture more political power, but the result has been presidential races driven more by money than retail politicking.