Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Moving the US Senate primary to June

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Bob Massie’s most recent post, Let’s Take the Three Part Pledge sent me searching to find out whether legislators like the idea. It turns out Woburn City Clerk William Campbell and State Rep. James Dwyer were ahead of him– they filed a Bill which would do just that back in January.  Dwyer filed H01972 to move the Senate primary from September to June. The bill would also move the Presidential primary to that same day. H011972 was reviewed at a hearing of the Joint Committee on Election Laws last Wednesday.

I don’t know the procedural stuff, but it’s pretty clear to me that a change in primary date would shake up the dynamics of the Democratic nomination. And change the outlook for Senator Brown’s re-election prospects.

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Comments

  1. Jim Dwyer is a pro – I am glad he is the one who filed this. As a practical matter, shortening the primary and lengthening the “real election” makes sense in terms of vetting the actual candidates AND avoiding having all the money used up during a primary.

  2. Why June? Why not September, like the Legislative primaries?

    Or the REAL solution, which is to move ALL our primaries to March, to allow interaction between the chosen candidates. Really – all the kvetching I’ve seen on this site about the short time between primary and election day, and you want to move the one primary at the RIGHT time?

    Shades of the law that prevented Mitt from naming a replacement for President Kerry.

    You guys have got to learn that the solution to situations you don’t like isn’t to change the laws back and forth to benefit yourselves.

    • The bill moves the entire state primary, not just the senate primary.

      The measure would move the primary date from September to June and would combine the presidential primary with the state primary – a move Campbell said would save the commonwealth $8 million.

      Many here have been advocating for quite a while to move the state primary to some time before summer.

      So I’m not sure what your point is.

    • Because the late primary closely protects incumbents. And that’s pretty much all it serves to do. An earlier primary promotes accountability amongst members of Congress.

      • .

        ..the late primary closely protects incumbents.

        Actually late primaries help challengers to create organizations within Districts.

        Early primaries limit accountability by limiting intra-party options.

  3. When was the last time you saw an intra-party challenger (or any challenger) unseat a member of Congress?

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