Sunday, March 16, 2003

Canceling primaries?:
The Associated Press is reporting that Republican legislators across the country are looking to scrap 2004 Democratic presidential primaries: ["State Republicans look to scrap presidential primaries"].
Canceling elections sets an extremely bad precedent, especially just to save a few bucks. And it seems to be happening everywhere of late. But if this does occur in extremely important primaries like Colorado, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, and Utah, Democrats can always hold caucuses in these states which would force the candidates to organize at the grassroots level. This will only help Democrats increase voter turnout in the final election.

Update: I forgot to mention earlier that Malden has also voted to cancel its 2003 City Council primary. By a vote of 7 to 3, the City Council approved a measure that would eliminate the city election primary, as reported in the March 7 edition of The Malden Advocate. The approval needs to be okayed by the Mass. Legislature. The city expects to save $30,000.