Seeking 2020 clout, California looks to jump the primary queue

[brooklynite]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by DonViejo (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Politico

In the age of Trump, California Democrats are tired of their state’s votes being an afterthought.

That’s why the state's top election official is pushing to reschedule the California primary to directly follow the early contests in Iowa and New Hampshire — a bid to pump up solidly blue California's clout, and voter turnout, in the 2020 presidential race.

Arguing that the nation’s most populous state should no longer be an “afterthought” in the presidential race, Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Tuesday announced his support for a bill from state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) that would move up the California presidential primary from its current spot near the end of the primary calendar to third — a position currently held by Nevada.

“We need to make California, and California issues, much more of a priority for all people seeking the presidency,’’ Padilla, a Democrat, told POLITICO on Tuesday. With California registration now leading the nation at 19.4 million voters, he said, “it’s going to be great for turnout. ... And it will make California much more relevant.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/california-wants-earlier-primary-2020-237117

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The flaw I see is that, if this is the week following NH, a week's campaigning won't be enough, candidates will have to cut into their NH and Iowa time to be competitive.

[guillaumeb]

1. More people live in Chicago than NH and Iowa combined.

So why exactly do these 2 mainly white, rural states play such a huge role?

[msongs]

2. gee having a balanced electorate might be a good thing nt

[chia]

3. CA being third in line and massively blue may have changed the course of the 2016 election.

We'll never know what difference it would have made in the past, but I'm all for seeing what difference it makes in the future.

[stopbush]

4. CA was solidly Hillary's for the duration of the campaign,

but you're right: Sanders' big win in NH might have changed that, or at least made it closer were the 2016 CA primary held right after NH.

[chia]

6. Agree, as a Bernie supporter myself,

that even if CA was Hillary, that great big tidal wave of blue (MOAB: Mother Of All Blue, haha) following NH would have made quite an impact - one that might have carried some close states. I know it's all conjecture, but it's a nice daydream...

[JEFF9K]

5. Nice to have smart ideas from the party of smart people. nt

[Orrex]

7. What is the value of holding primaries on different days?

It can't be a matter of facilitating effective campaigning in the successive states, because if that were the case then no two states would hold primaries on the same day.

Or, if they absolutely must be on different days, why not set the schedule by lottery? Why should one state always get to go first?

[DonViejo]

8. Locking...

Published 04/11/17 03:20 PM EDT, posted in LBN Thu Apr 13, 2017, 01:44 PM, way over 12-hour limit.

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