How to Fix the Presidential Nomination Process…and Other Imaginary Tales

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Edward Espinoza
Member, Democratic National Committee

After seeing the presidential nomination process unfold over the course of five months, it’s a good time to reflect and see what can be done to improve upon things.

Should Iowa and New Hampshire retain benevolent rights to remain first? Might we caucus on Father’s Day? Can Superdelegates really halt an insurgent candidacy from someone like Mike Gravel? Here’s a list of ideas that might get us going in the right direction.

No More Caucuses. Using a caucus as a form of an election makes about as much sense as putting candidates through a cage fighting match to determine a nominee. Actually a cage fighting match might be better as it may prove who is better suited to battle with cable TV commentators. One needs a math degree to figure caucuses out – and even then the numbers don’t make sense. Let’s get rid of them.

Kill the Grinch. Can we please leave Christmas out of elections? Iowa held its caucuses on January 3rd this year, leaving thousands of campaign workers and volunteers in hotel rooms on December 25th so that they could resume campaigning again on December 26th. No one appreciates this – not the staff, not the media, least of all the voters. What did February do to offend so many people? Am I the only one that likes the novelty of kicking off a presidential primary season around, oh I don’t know, say…President’s Day?

Update the Election Calendar. While we’re talking about months, it should be noted that the nomination calendar is six months long. Take into account the 18 months of campaigning leading up to that, and it’s the same amount of time I spent as a junior in college. Here’s an idea to cut that in half: February is for early states, Super Tuesday is in March, and we wrap this up in April just in time to pay our taxes. Worst case scenario we take it to Memorial Day. And we still have all spring and summer to spend two internships on the selection of a running mate!