Mitch Daniels’ ‘primary’ concern

Indianapolis Star political columnist Matt Tulley reported earlier this week on an interesting plan from Governor Mitch Daniels. The governor, like many of the other 98.56 percent of Americans who live in states other than Iowa and New Hampshire, is frustrated by the fact that these two states have so much influence in choosing the presidential candidates every four years. Tully says that Daniels went so far as to call the current system “wretched.”\nWow. We would have thought that a softer word like “disturbing” or “frustrating” would have done the trick, but “wretched” works, too.\nWe imagine you’ll agree that it is aggravating that Indiana really doesn’t have much influence in primary elections. It’s especially disappointing for your humble opinion staff. We preach our little hearts out talking about politics and our favorite – and least favorite – candidates, knowing that most of our readers can’t even vote until May. \nOn the other hand, it must be annoying to live in Iowa or New Hampshire in an election year. Think of the ceaseless phone calls residents must receive from all the different campaigns and special interest groups (invariably at dinner time). Think of the endless literature and fliers that fill their mailboxes. Think of the constant barrage of negative campaign ads that invade their TV and radio airwaves. Is having a say in the nomination of presidential candidates really worth all this?\nThen there’s the shameless pandering and condescension that we’d have to put up with from candidates for an entire year: \n“Indiana is such a great state!”\n“You know, I’ve always loved Indiana!”\n“The people of Indiana are so wonderful and hardworking!” \nAd infinitum, ad nauseum. \nAll in all, we still think it would be nice to have more of a say in nominating candidates. But we’re not totally on board with the governor. He wants to tie our primary date to whatever date New Hampshire chooses for its primary; That way, if Indiana moves up to the same day as New Hampshire, it will be unable to leapfrog us. We’ll just vote the same day as New Hampshire, no matter when \nit does it.\nWe’re not sure that all the states simply moving up their dates and frontloading the race is the best idea. Primary elections give candidates a unique opportunity to focus on a state and go out and connect with the people; If all the states voted in January, this would be impossible.\nWe believe that more people should begin putting pressure on the parties and the states to come up with a system that is fair for the whole country. Perhaps they could agree on some type of rotating schedule, giving different states the opportunity to be first to vote. Or maybe they could break up the states into groups of five, holding 10 primaries from January through May to distribute the power more evenly. \nThe governor’s plan might not ultimately prove to be the best one, but we applaud him for considering ways to give Hoosiers a bigger say in nominating presidential candidates.