GOP: Small States First
Republicans are proposing a presidential primary schedule that would let small states vote first in early March, with clusters of larger states voting later through June.
The plan, recommended Tuesday by a Republican advisory committee and to be considered by a party committee next week in Indianapolis, didn't address the tradition of Iowa and New Hampshire going first. The issue of early small states that allow "retail politics" is to be discussed later.
"We're concerned that too few people have a say in the process," said Jim Nicholson, chairman of the Republican National Committee. While GOP leaders say they are happy with their nominee this year, George W. Bush, Nicholson said "the wheels are coming off fast" in the nominating system.
The subject gained urgency this year after both parties' winners were decided by early March, before half the states had held primaries or caucuses. Leaders of both parties believe the current system has resulted in primaries starting too early in the year and then concluding too quickly, with the general election nine months away.
Former Sen. Bill Brock of Tennessee, who chaired the GOP advisory panel, said a primary process that lengthens the decision period, while reducing the influence of money and media would be healthy.
"We believe there's value in retail politics," said Brock.
The current system is driving the nominating process toward a national primary day somewhat like Super Tuesday this year when all states crowd up to a starting line like the March 7 date imposed by the Democrats this year.
Under the GOP plan proposed Tuesday, the smallest states would vote no earlier than the first Tuesday in March, with three more groups voting in subsequent months, ending in June. The "Delaware plan" was recommended to the panel by Delaware Republicans.
The GOP panel also recommended that delegates be awarded on a proportional basis, with candidates who win at least 15 percent of the vote in a state eligible to claim delegates. And the GOP would add serious penalties for states that don't comply. States could decide for themselves whether their primaries would be open or closed to voters outside the party.
The plan will be considered by the party's rules committee in Indianapolis next week, and, if endorsed, by the entire Republican National Committee at the party's convention in Philadelphia in August. A rotating regional primary plan proposed by the nation's secretaries of state was mentioned as an alternative.
Democrats have elected to stay with their current system for now, and to encourage Republicans to prevent the leapfrogging of states to have earlier primaries each election cycle. Democrats objected to the low minority percentage in many of the earliest states in the Delaware plan, and GOP officials say they added the District of Columbia and U.S. territories to that first round to increase diversity.