South Dakota Moves Presidential Primary for 2012 to December 2008
In a move designed to get candidates to focus on South Dakota early in the nomination process instead of ignoring them for the entire process, the state legislature has voted to move the Democratic primary from June 3 in the year of the presidential election to December 1 in the year of the previous election.
Legislator Todd White explained it this way: “We figure that by the end of November, we know who the President is, so everyone who was running before is now ready to start campaigning for the next election. We thought about moving it to after the inauguration in January, but we wanted to make sure no one leap-frogged over us. It would be pretty ludicrous to have a primary in November, so we figure December 1 is a safe bet.”
Other states, however, are already making noise about changing their own primary dates in response. New Hampshire, which traditionally holds the first true primary (Iowa holds a caucus instead of a primary), has considered moving it’s primary to the day of the previous Presidential election.
“Frankly, it’s a time saver,” said State Senator Douglas Townsend. “People are already there to vote. What’s one more issue on the ballot? Plus, many of the candidates who run in one election run in the next, so if the person currently running isn’t you’re first choice, you can go ahead and nominate someone else for the next go round even as you’re reluctantly voting the current nominee into office.”
Some Democrats have expressed concern that this would push the campaign season for Presidential election to before the previous election, causing parties to split on the issues just when a unified voice is most important.
“Think about it,” said Denise Peru, a member of the DNC. “Within a couple of weeks of the nomination, candidates who didn’t get the nomination will start campaigning again. We need to be focusing the nation’s attention on the current candidate for the current election. This only serves to further degrade the process and demonstrates the need for reform.”
In a poll asking voters what they thought the biggest issue in the 2012 Presidential campaign was, the top ten responses were:
1. Social Security
2. Health care
3. Iraq
4. The economy
5. The Second Coming
6. Privacy
7. Education
8. Robots
9. Immigration
10. Wait, did you say 2012?
Legislator Todd White explained it this way: “We figure that by the end of November, we know who the President is, so everyone who was running before is now ready to start campaigning for the next election. We thought about moving it to after the inauguration in January, but we wanted to make sure no one leap-frogged over us. It would be pretty ludicrous to have a primary in November, so we figure December 1 is a safe bet.”
Other states, however, are already making noise about changing their own primary dates in response. New Hampshire, which traditionally holds the first true primary (Iowa holds a caucus instead of a primary), has considered moving it’s primary to the day of the previous Presidential election.
“Frankly, it’s a time saver,” said State Senator Douglas Townsend. “People are already there to vote. What’s one more issue on the ballot? Plus, many of the candidates who run in one election run in the next, so if the person currently running isn’t you’re first choice, you can go ahead and nominate someone else for the next go round even as you’re reluctantly voting the current nominee into office.”
Some Democrats have expressed concern that this would push the campaign season for Presidential election to before the previous election, causing parties to split on the issues just when a unified voice is most important.
“Think about it,” said Denise Peru, a member of the DNC. “Within a couple of weeks of the nomination, candidates who didn’t get the nomination will start campaigning again. We need to be focusing the nation’s attention on the current candidate for the current election. This only serves to further degrade the process and demonstrates the need for reform.”
In a poll asking voters what they thought the biggest issue in the 2012 Presidential campaign was, the top ten responses were:
1. Social Security
2. Health care
3. Iraq
4. The economy
5. The Second Coming
6. Privacy
7. Education
8. Robots
9. Immigration
10. Wait, did you say 2012?
posted by SpakKadi at 10:28 PM
4 Comments:
South Dakota is a state??
-John
Yes. There's also a state called North Dakota and a state called West Virginia, though oddly, no state called East Virginia. Though, to talk to some long time Virginia residents, you would think there is a separate state called Northern Virginia.
As a matter of fact, there are a whole slew of states between the East Coast and West Coast. But there's very little known about them.
Is Social Security for Robots a separate issue? I'm very concerned about that as well.
Absolutely! As the robot workforce expands in size and scope and the number of working-age humans shrinks, the number of humans workers per retired workers will shrink to an unsustainable ratio. How to make up for this dearth of human labor available to pay for social security? Require companies to pay some amount into social security and medicare for every robot employee. But what is the definition of a robot employee? And will they, too, become eligible for social security since they will be paying into the system? It's a complex issue, to be sure.
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