GOP Pushes Four-Tier Primary
Over objections from larger states, Republican state chairmen endorsed a plan Friday that would let small states vote first in presidential primaries.
The plan would see the fifty states divided into four groups - depending upon size - with smaller states voting first and larger ones last. States refusing to go along with the plan could be partially stripped of delegate power, organizers said.
Debate over the plan could spill into the party's national convention in Philadelphia this summer, pitting small states against the likes of California, Texas and New York.
| Group One: American Samoa, Guam, Virgin Islands, Wyoming, District of Columbia, Vermont, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Puerto Rico. Group Two: Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, West Virginia, Utah, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, Iowa, Connecticut, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Carolina. Group Three: Kentucky, Colorado, Alabama, Louisiana, Arizona, Minnesota, Maryland, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Missouri, Washington, Indiana, Massachusetts. Group Four: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, New York, Texas, California. (AP) |
The plan will be considered at the convention in August, where delegations from larger states would have an advantage in numbers. Those states are outnumbered on the rules panel, which debated the proposal Thursday.
The subject gained urgency this year after both parties' winners were decided by early March, before half of the states held primaries or caucuses.
Under the plan, the smallest states would vote no earlier than the first Tuesday in March, with three more groups voting in subsequent months, ending in June.
Large states such as California, Texas and New York would hold primaries in June, but that final group still would decide 47 percent of the delegates.
The party's rules committee voted 36-13 for the small-states-first plan after debate over two days. Each state and territory had one vote and most of the largest states opposed the plan, saying it would negate their strategic importance.
Former Sen. Bill Brock of Tennessee, who chaired the GOP advisory panel, said the plan could boost interest in the presidential primary process.
"We want more time to examine presidential candidates, their ideas, their values, their leadership abilities," Brock told the panel. "We want less emphasis on media and money."
Brock regards the plan's endorsement as "a major step forward in increasing the participation of all states and al people."
Republicans who felt their states were shut out of the process this year supported the plan. But representatives from larger states disagreed.
"The 12 largest states should not allow their voters to have their voices stifled," said Barbara Alby, a GOP organizer from California.
In 1996, the Golden State moved its primary from June to the last Tuesday in March. This year, it was held on the first Tuesday in March. California officials are reluctant to move the date yet again.
The panel also endorsed a rule that would allow the national party to strip a state of 50 percent of its delegates if it decided not to comply with the primary schedule before Dec. 31 preceding a convention year. States not complying after that date could lose 90 percent of their delegates.
Democrats have elected to stay with their current system for now, allowing Iowa and New Hampshire to go first and restricting other states to a window from the first Tuesday in March to the second Tuesday in June.