Time is running out for Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean to drain the electoral swamp his organization helped create in Florida.
The solution, as I wrote last January, was to adopt the GOP plan and give Florida half its delegates. The state was "punished" by the Republican National Committee for having a primary before the National Committee had authorized one, but the millions of voters in Florida still will be represented at the GOP national convention. That approach could be still be adopted by the Democrats if they would just be willing to compromise with one another.
The other possibility for the DNC this spring was to help fund a Florida re-vote. That actually had some merit, but the powers-that-be dawdled and soon the option disappeared.
All in all, the situation in the Democratic nomination process--no votes for Michigan and Florida--shows why the nominating calendar should be "reformed" (literally re-formed) again. This time, give a tax break for citizens who donate up to, say, $2000 (with an inflationary adjustment built in for the future), for the presidential candidate of their choice. But make that tax break available only as of the first of the year of the general election itself. That will slow all the primary campaigns down because small and medium sized donors won't want to fund them until the election season officially begins and their donations can be used for tax deductions.
Then provide a federal subsidy to the states to help finance primaries, but again, it only would be available if the primary takes place after March 1. In olden days, March was the time of the New Hampshire primary, so that is a fit time to begin the season.
And then, bite the bullet and set up regional primaries, with different regions getting the first primaries. The present front loading is simply unfair to candidates, and, more importantly, to the vast majority of the nation's voters.
Meanwhile, Floridians and Michiganders stew. Nobody at all seems to be upset that the Republicans are denying Michigan and Florida half their delegates, but they are really sore at the Democrats for denying those states all of their delegates. This from the party that made such a fuss in 2000 about the need (in Florida!) to "count every vote."