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Why Pa. is haggling over earlier primary
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Mar 18, 2007 05:42am |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Friday, March 16, 2007 11:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Lancaster New Era article.
An excerpt...
"Two dozen states are scrambling to move up their 2008 primary contests to give their voters more say in what is shaping up as a blockbuster race for the White House.
Yes, Pennsylvania is among them.
Again.
And if history is any indication, the effort may very well die a slow death, as it has every time it's come up in the recent past here — which is to say, before every presidential cycle over the last two decades.
But if an earlier primary here makes sense, as a key Rendell administration official testified in Harrisburg this week, what's holding it up? Powerful interests: namely county commissioners and school boards, not to mention many state lawmakers who are up for re-election next year.
They are, and historically have been, strongly opposed to such a move, analysts say.
"This is a classic Pennsylvania story where the political power of local interests and parochial concerns trump broad, national issues," said Michael Young, a retired Penn State political scientist.
Moving the primary up 11 weeks, from April 22 to Feb. 5., would compress the amount of time counties have to prepare for the primary and the time school boards have to prepare budgets. It also would mean politicians would be forced to campaign months earlier, over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season.
G. Terry Madonna, the director of Franklin & Marshall College's Center for Politics and Public Affairs, doesn't give the proposal good odds. "Getting a primary-date change is going to be a tough nut to crack," he said." |
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