Sunday, January 18, 2004

By Tom Barnes, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell is tired of a big state like Pennsylvania being a nonfactor in the presidential race, while smaller states like Iowa and New Hampshire get all the national media attention.

So he plans to ask the state Legislature next year to move up the date for Pennsylvania's 2008 presidential primary -- perhaps as early as New Hampshire, the first state to hold a statewide primary, usually in late January or early February.

Rendell complained that by the time this year's Pennsylvania primary is held April 27, the Democratic presidential candidate will have been decided -- and this state's voters will have been left out.

Rendell, who was Democratic national chairman in 2000, said the current system of primaries is "all insanity and madness."

"Pennsylvania Democrats and Republicans are essentially disenfranchised from picking their [presidential] candidates," he said. "Because we don't vote this year until April 27, the [Democratic] race will be over by the time it gets to Pennsylvania. With the frontloading of the primary system, that's always going to be the case. We're never going to be relevant."

Two political analysts from central Pennsylvania, G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young, agreed.

"Despite its large population and political prominence, Pennsylvania is virtually ignored in the crucial [presidential] nominating process," said Madonna, a political science professor at Millersville University who with Young runs a Harrisburg public opinion research firm. "This lack of influence severely compromises the power and influence of the state in national politics. Pennsylvania's voters may determine who wins the presidency [in November], but have nothing to say at all about who runs for the presidency."

Pennsylvania will have 178 delegates to the Democratic National Convention, making it a coveted prize if the primary were earlier. Selecting delegates in February, they said, would "make the state the big enchilada before California with 441 [delegates] does its selection on March 2."

The first contest among Democratic hopefuls this year is the Iowa caucuses, set for tomorrow. New Hampshire will hold its primary Jan. 27. The South Carolina primary, the first in the South, is set for Feb. 3, with Missouri, Arizona and Oklahoma also on that date. Virginia and Tennessee have theirs Feb. 17, followed by "Super Tuesday" on March 2, when nine states, including New York, Ohio and California, vote.

While the action in this year's primaries is among Democrats, the opposite situation occurred in 2000. The Democratic candidate, then-Vice President Al Gore, was known, but Republicans had a spirited contest in which then-Texas Gov. George Bush outlasted Arizona Sen. John McCain and several others.

By law, Pennsylvania's primary is held on the fourth Tuesday of April in presidential election years. By late April of 2000, Rendell said, "George Bush had the nomination locked up."

Voter turnouts in the early primaries in 2000 were significant -- 60 percent or better, Rendell said, but by the time Pennsylvania's finally rolled around, there was little interest and voter turnout in this state sank to about 18 percent.

Rendell said he will ask state lawmakers to consider splitting off the 2008 presidential primary from the primary election for state offices, so the presidential primary can be in early February. The primary for other offices would be, as now, in late April.

He conceded that it would cost more to hold two primaries in 2008, but thought it was worth it to make Pennsylvania more of a player on the national scene.

Madonna and Young said an alternative to a statewide presidential primary would be a series of county conventions in early February, where delegates would be chosen.

"Local parties would be reinvigorated and an unparalleled level of grass-roots activity would take place," they claimed. Pennsylvania voters and the news media, "might actually pay attention to the delegate selection process."

Rendell also mentioned another option -- five regional primaries held a month apart. Each primary would include 10 states and the schedule would rotate every four years. It would sharply reduce the amount of traveling candidates would have to do because all 10 states, each year, would be in the same geographic area.

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