WASHINGTON -- Yesterday we considered Nevada’s future status as an early caucus state after The Washington Post reported Democrats will be entertaining a proposal at their convention next week to revamp the party's presidential primary system for 2012.
Today, the Post says Republicans will be considering similar changes at their convention next month, restructuring the calendar with rotating primaries to avoid the early pile-ups that happened this year.
Again, what does it mean for Nevada’s hopes of keeping its early voting spot? Read on:
Republicans are set to consider a complete rewrite of their political calendar for the 2012 presidential primaries as they gather in Minnesota to officially nominate Sen. John McCain after a tumultuous primary season.
If approved by the delegates to the Republican convention, the new GOP calendar will pack many state primaries into elections on three successive Tuesdays late in the political calendar. The groupings of primaries would rotate every four years so every state would have a chance to go early in the process.
Exceptions would be made for a few states -- including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and some small states that often get overlooked in the process. But under the proposed GOP rules, most would be locked into specific dates, a change from the freewheeling 2008 calendar, in which many states raced to the front of the pack, pushing voting earlier than ever before.
Republicans’ early status in Nevada this year was largely an afterthought, a way to capitalize on the Democrats’ groundbreaking effort hold an early caucus, which was part of an overall Democratic strategy to diversify the presidential nominating process and focus on Western states that now are proving key to winning the White House.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who worked intensely to secure Nevada’s early status, wants to keep Nevada in the early line-up.
Will Republicans more aggressively court early status for Nevada in 2012? Who in the party will take the lead?
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