In case you missed it, Governor Patrick today signed a bill moving MA’s presidential primary up about a month, to Feb. 5.
As previously noted, the really big news about this is that a bunch of special elections can figure on turnout being about six times higher than they might have been expecting. That’ll probably be bad news for some candidates who were hoping to squeak in based on a high turnout in their extended families, but it’s generally good news for democracy.
Please share widely!
I was looking forward to the March 15th primary being my first election where I would actually be present in the voting booth to vote. Now I have to register for absentee and do so by Jan 16th.
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p>Also it might suck for the state in the sense that the bigger delegate rich states will drown out the voice of small Massachusetts whereas we would’ve had the floor to ourselves March 15th with far fewer rival states on the traditional super tuesday date. Moreover with a potential of a deadlocked nomination after Feb 5th we would’ve been crucial to the process.
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p>Alas this election has demonstrated that IA and NH are still the big guns and the true king makers, the choice was really to be drowned out early or later so I guess its cathartic to vote earlier.
the choices are:
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p>a) the field is “set” by the day after Super Tuesday, and MA won’t have a big role since it’ll get dwarfed by other states, or
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p>b) the field isn’t “set” by the day after Super Tuesday, and MA will have forfeited it’s chance to have a significant impact because it’d be a primary day with substantially fewer total delegates at stake that day, and with fewer remaining delegates to be had, making each delegate that much more valuable.
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p>(a) is more likely than (b), but neither play out to give MA an advantage with a Supah-doopah primary election date.
It would have been better to at least consult the town and city clerks who have to run the elections. Another example of complete disregard for the local perspective where the mandates are targeted without due process or (usually) funding.
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p>Did it occur to anyone in state government that many poll workers are retirees and may not be in Massachusetts in February?
Aside from the people on this site, nobody pays a lot of attention to these races the year before, especially during the holiday season.
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p>Now we’ve only got one month, snow-covered January, to go door-to-door. Fat chance. That turns this into a war of robo-calls and TV ads. These things don’t bring new people in.
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p>Super-duper Tuesday might not be a bad idea, but having in Feb. 5th is.
I hadn’t really thought this one through (it’s rumored that I’ll have to personally care about Feb 5th in my district) but yeah, campaigning in winter, in an even more shortened campaign season than usual, will really suck…
Dark so early in the evening.
Can’t stand outside somebody’s door — it’s cold!
Shouldn’t go inside either — safety and speed suffer.
It’s hard to write things down wearing mittens.
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p>I’m not sure that things would be much better four weeks later, but every little bit helps…
more time, Ron Paul, that is unless Dennis makes substantial gains. All of the others are mere corporate owned prostitutes.