Primary poised to jump to front of line

Union Leader reported New Hampshire’s top election official says he will schedule the 2008 first-in-the-nation primary ahead of any new caucuses or primaries that will dilute its traditional key role in picking Presidential nominees. A national Democratic commission appears poised to recommend at a meeting next week that at least two caucuses be placed between Iowa’s leadoff caucus and New Hampshire’s primary eight days later. If the Democratic National Committee ultimately adopts such a plan, Secretary of State William Gardner said he is authorized by New Hampshire law to jump the primary ahead of the newly placed events. “The intent of our law is to preserve our tradition,” Gardner told the New Hampshire Union Leader. “The intent is to preserve what we have had, and nothing less.”

Iowa and New Hampshire want to preserve their ability to be the first in the nation, despite the fact that neither is representative of the country as a whole. They should rotate and let different states be first each election.