Posted on 08/26/2013 3:37:10 AM PDT by ClaytonP
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Establishment Republicans fear that conservatives have become such a dominant force in the nominating process here that they may drive mainstream presidential candidates away.
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“You’re going to see conservatives probably not play as much in New Hampshire, and you’re going to see moderates not play here,” Mr. Santorum said in an interview this month before he addressed the gathering of Christian conservatives here.
That is exactly what senior Iowa Republicans fear. And it is why some in the party are already taking steps to curb one of the more controversial elements of the caucus process: the Ames Straw Poll.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Five 10 state primary dates would probably be better. I think it would change the way campaigning is done for the better.
Imagine a primary date of Texas, Alabama, Oregon, Alaska, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Michigan, Kansas and Missouri.
I was also thinking that a better National Capitol System would be to rotated between Two, Two Month Sessions of Congress each year between the different state capitols.
That way you don't have a consolidation of power like we do now.
You would pull a State out of a hat at the end of each session, then it would be removed until all of them have been used, then it starts all over again.
Given the quality of recent Republican nominees, it's unfair to the rest of the world.
The Iowa Caucus population is a tiny and very strange group of people. The New Hampshire voter is also a very strange bird, especially with cross overs. Having these two odd ball tiny groups decide so much is just absurd.
People don’t realize it, but SC, not a big state, has several times the entire Iowa and NH caucus/primary voter populations by itself...and is much more “normal” by national conservative standards. Then you have Florida, which is really a political mess right now, and huge. The race is almost always over by the end of those four states, and really was in 08 and 12.
The small town has been dying since the private transportation network (railroads) disappeared and the concentration of more cropland into fewer owners resulted in school consolidations and regional retailing hubs. In essence, Iowa ethnically cleansed itself.
(Cities such as Dubuque continue to deliberately alter their makeup through systematic importation of urban felons as well as implementation of Agenda 21 items.)
Anyone still want this herd of self-destroying losers picking your candidates? Me either, and I live here. Yes, there are still good people in Iowa, but as a place to live it is about as vibrant as a funeral home unless you have already got yours and can keep hold of it.
Mr. niteowl77
Well after they gave Romney artificial momentum into New Hampshire, I hope they lose their influence. I also hope New Hampshire loses its influence in pushing worthless moderates.
As a former resident of the Idiots Out Walking Around state, I’m shocked to learn IOWA had a role in the first place! (/sarc)
they have sold their souls to the Platinum health care and numerous perks of office, it has become aqn adiction for them, and they usually are moderates, like tn’S Alexander and corker, graham, mccain, snowe, etc. even rubio us betraying us with this amnesty reversal, trying to justify it in contorted ways. wolf in conservative clothing, mouthing all the right words, but turning his back once elected!
Colorado does not belong on this list. Our Primaries are so late in the game there has not been a choice for president on our ballot for 3 election cycles. Colorado has closed primaries so we could help a conservative candidate.
If we had a choice on the ballot. If the winner had not been selected prior to our primary. If the republicants had a better choice than Snow White (Bachmann) and seven dwarves.
I propose that we have 4 primary Tuesdays each two weeks apart starting in March. On January 1st all the states for each Super Tuesday are selected at random, so Iowa may be on the first Tuesday one election cycle and the fourth the next and so on. That would stop this nonsens of wannabe candidates trooping to Iowa and New Hampshire 40 months before the next election.
Lets see,
Iowa and New Hampshire with the help of crossover dems voting has given the GOP nominees like romney, dole, mc lame and other boring old fools.
To hell with Iowa and NewHampshire
One thing I find curious about how the system is set up is how the national party will punish a state if it sets up their primary earlier than the party wants.
It should be none of their damn business. The national party needs us, we don’t need them. They should abide by whatever a state decides.
If Texas decided to hold its primary on the same day as Iowa, what would the party do? Punish Texas? Would they REALLY want to go down that road?
Texas won’t do that, of course, because the “powers that be” in the state GOP will go along with whatever the national “powers that be” tells them to.
That is why our nation is doomed. There are the very few that matter, and the great masses of people that just...don’t.
I wouldn’t be so hard on the swing states (Florida, we can’t win without it, it should have no say? Ohio? Those are the keystone states that winner will usually carry)
I still don’t see how it can be fair unless everyone votes at the same time, whatever problems that may cause wouldn’t be worse than the current stupid system. You could have like an electoral college for delegates, states get more delegates the more Republicans they have and award the delegates proportionally, that would weigh it toward the Republican states but wouldn’t screw the millions of decent people in Cali and NY who deserve to have a vote. I don’t like the idea of not having a choice as to who the nominee is (like everyone in the final states to vote every election, it’s over before it gets to them) just cause I live in a bad state.
The delegates can actually serve a purpose by working it out if no one has a majority (in all likelihood no one would most of the time), like the old days. Romney wouldn’t have had a majority.
I agree with Impy, swing states definitely should have a say in who our nominee is. Nominating the local favorite in the Deep South and the Prairies may not be the best way to get to 270 in the general.
As for everyone voting at the same time, that would make insurgent candidacies all but futile, would not allow voters to winnow out those who can’t hack it, and would make candidates who can afford national ads the prohibitive favorites. Perhaps we shouldn’t have a single state go first, but neither should we have more than 3 or 4 states vote on the first primary day.
Frankly, I have no major problem with IA or NH going so early, and don’t believe that such states have given liberal Republicans an advantage. (Heck, if anything, having IA go first pretty much kills off any chance that a pro-abortion Republican could have early momentum, since the IA GOP electorate is vehemently pro-life.) My biggest concern is that states start to pile up rapidly right after SC, making it difficult for an insurgent who rallies conservatives to victory in the early states to be able to fundraise enough to be competitive in all those primaries taking place pretty much on a weekly basis thereafter.
Maybe we could have IA, NH and SC go on the first day, then NV, FL and MI go two weeks later, and then three more states two weeks after that, and so on and so forth.
Of course Santorum actually won Iowa, but somehow that wasn’t declared till a few weeks after.
I live in Iowa now, but miss Nebraska. We were the last state the Clinton visited.
Yeah NH might be somewhat of a problem, not so much Iowa. Unless the issue is farm pork I suppose, the caucus goers in Iowa are a pretty conservative group.
I’d just as soon not see the same states go first every time though just cause of tradition. They don’t want to give it up of course because it’s a boon for the local economies for every to get overrun with people every 4 years. Pretty much racketeering if you ask me.
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