Lawmakers Want to Make Californias Presidential Primary Earlier [View all]

[RandySF]

One of the factors that no doubt exacerbated the helplessness Californians felt in 2016 was how tiny a role we played during the presidential election (let us never speak of it again). On the one hand, hey, this whole mess isn’t really our fault. Our long national barge fire is on you, Wisconsin! On the other hand, you know, maybe we could have done some good, perhaps altered the outcome for the better. We voted in June. Way too late.

California lawmakers would like our primary votes–and the issues Californians care about–to matter more, so they’re proposing we move the state’s primary to Super Tuesday, which fell on March 1 in 2016. Lawmakers would like to give the governor an option to move the primary up even earlier if too many other states try to move their primaries before California’s. From the Los Angeles Times:

“A state as populous and diverse as California should not be an afterthought,” Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a statement supporting Senate Bill 568.

“By holding our primary earlier, we will ensure that issues important to Californians are prioritized by presidential candidates from all political parties,” Padilla said.

Assuming there is an election in 2020, this would be a welcome development.


http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/california-presidential-primary-2020/