MotherJones.com MoJoBlog - Social Issues and Political Commentary: Redoing the Primary System: Rotating Regionals?:
"Alexander said the model for federal legislation is based on a 1999 bill that
Lieberman co-wrote that would have created a regional primary system. That bill
would have created a system of four rotating regions, with a cluster of 13
mid-Atlantic and Northeast states voting on the first Tuesday of March, with a
southern group of states going the first Tuesday of April, a Midwest group the
first Tuesday of May and a Mountain West and far West group going last, the
first Tuesday of June.
The next election, the order would be rotated so that
no region would always go first. That bill, which was referred to the Senate
Rules and Administration Committee, went nowhere legislatively speaking."
Why is it that Americans can't change to the metric system, why is it that we can sit around all day and talk about how we know that something doesn't work and not fix it. The metric system has been around for years, and there is always talk about America changing over, at some point, but it doesn't. Why is it that when a good idea comes forward, we can't change our path from what it has been to what is clearly a better system. This rotating regional idea is the best idea I have ever seen for changing the primary system. The way it is now is just insane, to have to campaign for a primary in a state on the east coast and the west coast on the same day - of course you are going to have to focus on one more than the other.
There are so many ways that this could be better. Think about the fuel that could be saved, if candidates could focus on one region at a time, that region would get more attention and the candidates wouldn't have to fly back and forth across the country. In the time that each candidate has to appeal to each region, they can focus more on the needs of that region. If you are doing a national campaign, with a broken primary system like we have now, you are wasting your time by discussing ideas that have a regional appeal.
The final kicker for me is that it would rotate, what is driving the primaries earlier and earlier is the impression that those who have the early primaries get more attention. Rotating would mean that each election cycle would favor a different region.
