For too long, the Rocky Mountain West has been a blank
spot on the map of presidential politics. But that’s beginning to
change, and Montana can do its part by joining other western states
in coordinating our presidential primaries or caucuses. A bill now
under consideration in the Montana House would give us that
opportunity.
House Bill 797, introduced by Rep. Duane Ankney,
R-Colstrip, would give the secretary of state the authority to set
the date of Montana’s presidential primary to coincide with other
Mountain West primaries or caucuses. The bill had a hearing before
the State Administra-tion Committee on Feb. 23.
Whether this
particular bill is exactly the right vehicle for Montana is a matter
we’ll return to later, but Montanans should not miss this
opportunity to discuss the best way for Montana to play its part in
gaining a stronger voice for the Mountain West.
The first
thing to notice about this regional effort is that it is not a
partisan matter. Last March, both Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer
and Republican Secretary of State Brad Johnson spoke out in favor of
Montana aligning its presidential primary with other western states.
They followed the bipartisan lead of Governors Bill Richardson,
D-N.M., Jon Huntsman, R-Utah, and Janet Napolitano, D-Ariz., who had
already moved their states into alignment on Feb. 5,
2008.
“We don’t believe in the West that we ought to let
Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina pick our presidents,”
Schweitzer has said, while Johnson has pledged that “by working
together with my Democrat and Republican colleagues in other Western
states I want to … make sure all voices are heard.” There is
justifiable concern in some quarters that Feb. 5 may become so
crowded — with big states like California and Florida also
considering primaries on that date — that small- population states
like Montana would simply get swamped and ignored once again.
Clearly, the front-end-loading of the primary calendar is now
threatening to become so pronounced in 2008 that it might force the
political parties (and maybe even Congress) to consider alternative
approaches like a national primary or a rotating system of regional
primaries, starting in 2012.
If Montana was just trying to
make itself heard in the presidential sweepstakes, it would not make
sense to move our presidential primary to the increasingly crowded
Feb. 5 date. We may almost as well leave it where it is now, in
June, where we have no influence at all on the choice of either
party’s candidate.
But this is not about Montana (or any other western state)
gaining more clout for itself. The point is to give our whole region
and its issues more attention.
Westerners are already working
to do that in Nevada, where the Democrats will conduct their
presidential caucus on Jan. 19, between the Iowa caucus and the New
Hampshire primary, and where they are planning a candidate forum in
August, focusing specifically on western issues. Meanwhile, the
Western Governors’ Association and other western policymakers are
planning their own candidates’ forum on western issues.
If
these and similar efforts succeed in getting presidential candidates
to address western issues such as energy, National Forest
management, or tribal issues, the simultaneous scheduling of western
primaries and caucuses will take on a new significance.
Most
candidates still won’t spend much time in states like Montana or
Wyoming, but if they address our issues when they stop in Denver or
Salt Lake City, they will be seeking not just our few delegates, but
a much larger number of Rocky Mountain delegates. Our part of the
country would then be viewed like a big state and treated
accordingly. But that can only happen if the states of the Rocky
Mountain West insist that the candidates address our
issues.
Montana should be part of this united effort. Whether
we do it by moving our presidential primary to Feb. 5, or by
encouraging both parties to hold caucuses that day, we should stand
together with our western neighbors, unified to bring recognition to
our interests, our concerns and our people.
— Bob Brown and
Daniel Kemmis are Senior Fellows at The University of Montana’s
O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West. Brown is a former
Republican secretary of state and president of the Montana Senate.
Kemmis is a former Democratic mayor of Missoula and speaker of the
Montana House of Representatives.
