McClatchy: Can broken primary system be fixed?

Can broken primary system be fixed?
By Matt Stearns | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Tuesday, September 25, 2007



WASHINGTON — Florida's defiant decision to hold its presidential primary weeks earlier than both national parties dictate highlights one inescapable fact: There's no easy fix for this mess of a presidential nominating system.

Parties set rules and dates, but self-interested states ignore them with little fear of meaningful consequence or much concern for the national interest. Would-be reformers tout a variety of fixes — which the states find lacking. Congress suggests that it might step in, but the Constitution may not allow it.

"States are tripping over each other to get to the front lines, and most of them are operating within the rules of the parties," said Ryan O'Donnell, spokesman for FairVote, a nonpartisan electoral-change advocacy group. "Clearly, the parties are failing to control the process."

The problems of the current primary-and-caucus nomination game are well documented: It's too fast, too expensive and each election cycle is accelerating the absurdity. Plus, Iowa and New Hampshire, two idiosyncratic early-voting powerhouses that barely reflect the rest of the country, play an outsized role in this electoral "Survivor."

The still-unsettled 2008 primary schedule is the worst one yet: With states leapfrogging one another to gain influence and attention, neither Iowa nor New Hampshire has formally scheduled its vote, which both states are determined will remain first and second, come what may.

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The solution is simple ... a national primary. Whoever gets the most votes nationally is the nominee. But that will never happen because too many oppose the whole "1 person, 1 vote" democracy thing.