The New Hampshire/Iowa monopoly at the top of the nomination calendar needs to be put down. Could those states be any more obnoxious?
Last summer, local Democratic leaders took heat for voting in support of a Democratic National Committee-approved calendar for the 2012 presidential primaries and caucuses that's in conflict with the New Hampshire law mandating that our first-in-the-nation primary be held seven days ahead of any "similar election."
The rub was that the DNC calendar, in setting dates for four early events, put Nevada's caucus only four days after the New Hampshire primary.
Republicans made lots of hay about this, positioning themselves as the grand champions of New Hampshire's unearned and unjustified position at the top of the primary calendar.
Fast forward to last week, when news came from Nevada that created the same problem for New Hampshire, and Gardner, on the Republican side.
The Nevada Republican Party set the date of its caucus for Feb. 18, the same day as the Democrats, and said that delegates will be bound by the results.
New Hampshire law REQUIRES their primary to be held seven days before any other, specifically to "protect the tradition" of their position on the calendar.
The parties have an easy solution -- refuse to seat the delegates. Of course, that gets difficult, like when Michigan had an unsanctioned early primary in 2008. Remember? Hillary won the uncontested election and the status of Michigan's delegates became a proxy battle between Obama and Clinton. Those Michigan delegates were only granted full voting rights when their votes didn't have a material effect on the results of the primary.
But really, states like Michigan have a reason to be angry at a calendar that rewards a handful of states every cycle. There are several competing alternatives. You could have four or five regional contests on a rotating basis, so every region gets to lead every 16-20 years. You could have a lottery. You could start with a handful of small states and every week go to progressively bigger states, ending with the mega states of California, Texas, and New York. You could start with the most tightly contested states of the previous election, to give the swingiest states first dibs.
There are plenty of ways to create a fair calendar that isn't based on capricious demands to be first, just because.