Oh, the Anticipation!
October 24, 2007, 1:21 PM
Levin: Michigan Could Set Same Date For Nominating Contest As New Hampshire
Posted by Brian Montopoli
Sen. Carl Levin has a problem with the Granite State.
The Politico reports that the Michigan Democrat is threatening to hold Michigan's presidential nominating contest on the same day that New Hampshire holds its primary.
Why? The present, "cockamamie" primary system isn't in the best interest of America.
“No state should have that dominant a role,” Levin said at a breakfast with reporters, Politico reports. “New Hampshire has a hammerlock, folks.”
Levin's plan would entail holding a caucus for Michigan Democrats on whatever day New Hampshire decides to hold its primary. (That date still up in the air, because New Hampshire has been biding its time in order to protect of its traditional role as the state that holds the nation's first primary.)
As Politico points out, New Hampshire is very good at organizing its primary quickly once a date is set, and that might make things tough for Levin. New Hampshire Secretary of state Bill Gardner is threatening to hold the primary as early as December 4.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is saying he wants New Hampshire and Iowa (which holds caucuses, not a primary) to maintain their front of the line position in the nominating process, the Associated Press reports.
But he also says that he wants all Republican delegates seated at next year's GOP National Convention. The Republican National Committee is threatening to punish a number of states, including New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida, for setting their primaries in January or earlier by stripping them of half their delegates. (Iowa, despite its early caucus, formally selects its delegates later.)
``I would like to see all the delegates seated, but I also want to protect the Iowa first, New Hampshire second process,'' Romney said in South Carolina.
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