New Hampshire Going to the Mat
As I’ve argued before, I think the Democratic Party would benefit tremendously if New Hampshire wasn’t the first primary. New Hampshire doesn’t look anything like the rest of America. Very few Latinos, for one thing. A state like Arizona, on the other hand, has far more diversity. The last candidate who won a contested Democratic primary in New Hampshire and then went on to win the presidency was Jimmy Carter. I believe that a candidate who won a primary in Arizona would be far better suited to win a general election than a candidate who won New Hampshire because the themes and constituencies addressed in Arizona would more closely resemble what the candidate would face in a general election. Having been in New Hampshire for Paul Tsongas when he won in ‘92, I understand very well how much the New Hampshire Democratic Primary is all about appeasing the hard-core, self-interested machine that is the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Of course, that machine is not going down without a fight. John DiStaso of the New Hampshire Union Leader reports on the state Dems’ threats to the DNC commission that thinking about tinkering with the primary calendar:
State party Chair Kathy Sullivan and other top Dems have endorsed former state chair Joe Keefe‘s new letter telling the Democratic National Committee’s calendar commission that any proposal to place more caucuses — even one — between the leadoff Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary won’t cut it.
“I cannot stress how unwise it would be to undermine New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation status, nor how strongly New Hampshire Democrats will fight against the Commission’s recommendations,” Keefe says, adding that “there is no acceptable compromise.”
If the commission ignores the warning, “I will do whatever I can to encourage New Hampshire Democrats and others to oppose the Commission’s recommendations and to prevent such an outcome by whatever means necessary.”
Sullivan agrees because “as a member of the DNC, I can’t stand by and watch a commission that’s been derailed from its original purpose take steps to guarantee the defeat of a Democratic candidate in 2008.”
As if winning New Hampshire has recently helped ensure the victory of Democratic candidates in presidential elections. The thing the New Hampshire primary has done best for the last 5 cycles is raise the national profile of politicians from Massachusetts.
