Moving California's Primary to February Gave Us More Clout, Not Less

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Now that the Pennsylvania primary has made the Democratic race even more uncertain, it shouldn't be surprising that Monday morning quarterbacks are suggesting that the California primary should have remained in June. What they forget is that the California played a pivotal role in February in the contests for the nomination for both parties.

According to Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a record nine million Californians voted in the February 5, 2008 presidential primary election. That's nearly 1.2 million more voters than the previous primary election of 7.8 million, set in 2000. In all, 57.71 percent of registered voters cast ballots in the February election, marking the highest primary turnout on a percentage basis since 1980.  Voters were heavily engaged in the February primary like they never had been in a June election.

For the first time in memory, candidates in both parties waged full-fledged, hard-fought campaigns in California. Airwaves were full of political advertisements for presidential candidates, field operations were in place in every Congressional district, and tens of thousands of volunteers hit the streets and the Internet to participate in democracy. The CNN Democratic debate -- in Los Angeles -- was one of the most watched in our nation's history, and the Republican debate also scored high. Most of us haven't seen so much presidential primary activity in our lifetimes, and California hasn't played such a significant role in decades.

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Image courtesy CNN.