(
From the diaries. I'll definitely have thoughts on this once I digest the details -- kos)
For all those waiting to see how the primary calendar would change based on the infamous primary re-vamp commission, here's the latest:
Saturday Oct 1, 2005. Associated Press
Dems to Add Contests to 2008 Calendar
Democrats trying to change their party's presidential primary for 2008 agreed Saturday to allow at least two other states to join Iowa and New Hampshire in voting during the opening days of the nominating campaign.
That expansion, debated before a commission considering changes in the primary calendar, is intended to provide more racial and geographic diversity to an opening process now dominated by Iowa and New Hampshire. Those states, representing about 1.5 percent of the country's population, have residents who are mostly white.
The additional states, expected to be named later, were likely to include a smaller state from the South and a smaller state from the Southwest or West.
The article goes on to say:
"The Republicans are licking their chops today, hoping we stumble and give them the first good news they have had in months," said Crawford, a commission member.
While Democrats agreed on expanding the early voting, sharp differences emerged on bigger questions like slowing the pace of the primary calendar from early February on and whether Iowa and New Hampshire should have a permanent place at the front of the process.
"I do not think we should make the assumption that Iowa and New Hampshire should always be in the group" of states leading off the voting, said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), the Michigan lawmaker whose complaints about the current calendar prompted the formation of the commission.
Longtime Democratic activist Harold Ickes of Washington questioned whether those changes will help the party's chances because the current calendar moves too quickly. Ickes noted that Democrats worked for a faster selection process of a Democratic nominee in 2004. By March the party had all but nominated Massachusetts Sen.
John Kerry
I'm not exactly sure how I feel about these changes. While I was hoping to explore regional primaries, I never really held much hope that they would actually be instituted.
I wonder what the other two states will be?
Should be interesting...