Republican national chairman suggests changing New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary status
Of course, New Hampshire didn’t quite like that idea.
If Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus has any say in it, New Hampshire’s 100-year anniversary first-in-the-nation presidential primary in 2016 could be its last.
The GOP chairman told the National Journal that when it comes to New Hampshire and Iowa, he doesn’t “think there should ever be any sacred cows as to the primary process or the order.’’
“It’s a hot topic. These early states are very used to fighting this out every four years. It’s just something I think we ought to look at as a party,’’ Priebus told the Journal. “If you look at my history, I’ve been very supportive of the early states as general counsel and as chairman. But I don’t think anyone should get too comfortable.’’
Priebus said the issue would be “front and center’’ at the party’s rules committee meeting next July.
Though the Journal noted that the RNC imposed “severe penalties for any state that leapfrogged’’ New Hampshire or Iowa this year, Priebus’ remarks nonetheless set off political — if not state-permitted literal — fireworks in the Granite State.
New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner told WMUR.com that try as political parties might, state law would prevail over the timing of primaries.
“We have a law dating back to 1975 and as I have said over the years, this primary won’t be taken away from us by external forces,’’ Gardner said. “It will only change when the will of the people want it to change, and that’s pretty unlikely.’’
Indeed, New Hampshire state law says the primary shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or a date “7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is earlier.’’
For his part, Priebus said he understood the difficulty of displacing early voting states, but was interested in changes to make the process more competitive. From the Journal:
“One of the things I would have been interested in doing is sort of like a rotating primary process, where you would divide the country into five quadrants and have a primary about once every two weeks. And then you could have about a 10-week primary process,’’ Priebus said. “I’ve always been intrigued by that idea.’’
Several other plans have been floated in recent years, Priebus said, including a “random lottery’’ that would assign each of the 50 states with a number 1 through 5 and result in five primary dates with 10 states voting on each.
The GOP chairman’s remarks provided a point of bipartisanship between the constantly-bickering state Republican and Democratic parties, if only for a moment.
“Reince Priebus and the Republican party has made it clear that they want to destroy New Hampshire’s first in the nation status,’’ said a statement by New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley, who went on to blame the state’s Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s “inept leadership’’ for the GOP chairman’s words. Ayotte is up for reelection in 2016.
In a statement, New Hampshire Republican State Committee Jennifer Horn agreed with her counterpart, sort of.
“New Hampshire has earned its place as the First-in-the-Nation presidential primary state because our voters are sophisticated and take their role in the nomination process seriously,’’ she said. “The entire nation benefits when candidates are forced to answer the concerns of voters face-to-face in living rooms and backyards across New Hampshire.’’
Horn then blamed New Hampshire’s Democratic seantor and governor — Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, respectively — for trying to “rig New Hampshire’s presidential primary with early endorsements of Hillary Clinton, despite strong grassroots support for Bernie Sanders.’’
Oh, politics.
2016 presidential candidates
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