Every four years, Americans from coast to coast watch as the
returns come in:
"From the living room of Bob and Ellen Nordbloom on the east side
of Keokuk, Dick Gephart picked up one more supporter ..."
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Or later, "Paul Tsongas
jumped ahead in the Democratic presidential race Tuesday, defeating
Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton in the New Hampshire primary."
It's been estimated that half of allthe news coverage
given to presidential nominating procedures nationwide every
four years goes to the coffee klatches in 2,500 Iowa precincts and
the primary election in tiny New Hampshire.
In other words, 100,000 Iowa partisans and 200,000 wool-hatted
New Hampshire voters make or break the candidacies of many
presidential hopefuls, whether the other 125 million American voters
like it or not.
In the process, candidates ignore the interests of entire
sections of the country, including ours.
Is that fair? Effective? Democratic?
No, no and no.
In recent years momentum has been building to break those two
states' strangleholds on the American electoral process — and, we
might add, on enormous campaign expenditures by a host of candidates
over a long period of time.
Today in Salt Lake City, Montana Secretary of State Brad Johnson
joins more than 150 other officials and academics from across the
intermountain West to examine the possibility of advancing that
cause.
The idea, spearheaded by Republican Gov. John Hunstman of Utah,
is to establish an eight-state "superprimary" in a region of common
interests from Montana to New Mexico.
The one-day Western States Presidential Primary Symposium will
feature presidential campaign consultants, think-tank luminaries and
two governors, Huntsman and Democrat Bill Richardson of New Mexico.
Among the presenters is Dan Kemmis, a senior fellow at the Center
for the Rocky Mountain West in Missoula.
Establishing such a primary, probably in February of presidential
election years, is not without difficulties, including the potential
expense.
But we agree with Johnson, who said before leaving for the Utah
symposium: "Montanans deserve a greater voice in choosing
presidents."
"These days, the major parties have often chosen their candidates
before the first Montanan casts a vote in the primary election," he
said in a release. "By working together with my Democrat and
Republican colleagues in other Western states, I want to enact
policies to make sure all voices are heard."
Works for us.
greatfallstribune.com
