Category Archives: Rules


More crazy calendar stuff: WA and NV

Hotline points out that the GOP Nevada caucus might move into the window.
At the same time, both parties in Washington are turning their primaries into beauty contests and selecting delegates in caucuses.
Expect more states to follow this pattern. If Feb 5th does not determine the nominations, then caucuses could determine the nominee. On the […]

California open-primary, California politics, and John McCain

Update: I have two additions, both from Jon Fleischman. First, Duf Sundheim denies in writing that he supports John McCain. Usually conservatives have trouble that anyone supports McCain. It is amusing that they insist on it here. Second, Fleischman, in his second post, gets a firm denial from the McCain campaign that they are pushing […]

Late primaries going to get canceled?

Apparently Washington is considering canceling its primary:
Some state lawmakers are thinking about canceling next year’s presidential primary in Washington to save the $10 million cost of the election.

The chairman of the House state government committee, Sam Hunt of Olympia, says lawmakers should consider canceling the primary if it’s going to be nothing more than […]

McCain cranks up in New York

This is interesting:

GOP consultant and former state GOP Executive Director Brendan Quinn, who was involved in the state Republican Party’s efforts to keep U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Az, off New York’s presidential primary ballot in 2000, confirmed he is now working for McCain and setting up his Empire State campaign for the ‘08 election.

Among McCain’s […]

Calendar stuff and new goofy GOP delegate selection processes

First, Bill Gardner, the NH’s Secretary of State is set to move up the New Hampshire primary to January 14th, 2008. Iowa would then have to move up too, as David Yepsen notes. There’s an important undercurrent here. Both of these are swing states, and the DNC rules would strip both of these states of […]

California moving up

This is big and complicated. California is strongly considering moving up to February 5th. This will have an enormous impact on the race. First, the money barrier to entry just got a lot bigger. A lot. California is really really big.
Second, the rules, on the Republican side, in California are quite strange and still in […]

Florida moving … to January?

This is remarkable:
Lawmakers said Thursday they want Florida’s primary pushed up to January 2008 to increase the state’s political influence, but they may face retribution from the national Republican and Democratic parties.

If that happened, Florida Democrats would lose all their delegates at the convention, according to current DNC rules.
This will be fun. You also have […]

Dems move up NV and SC, Screw NH

Hotlineblog has some of the details (unfortunately, something is screwed up with their link). The Chicago Tribune and Manchester Union Leader have the best coverage.
First, the procedure. The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee passed a resolution fixing the beginning of the 2008 Dem primary and caucus schedule. Today it will be considered by the full […]