Democrats seek to change order of caucuses, primaries

The Democratic rules and bylaws committee wants to shake things up in 2008 by making changes to the order that the early states hold their party caucuses and primaries for the upcoming presidential election.

The way things are now, is that Iowa holds it's caucus first. Then New Hampshire holds the nation's first presidential primary election. NH has such affection for that tradition that there is a state law declaring it shall be the first primary in the nation.

Now comes the rules and blaws committee, attempting to insert a Nevada caucus into the mix between the original one-two punch of Iowa-New Hampshire. They also want to grant South Carolina an early primary, to be held one week after the NH primary.

The reason for these proposed changes? To insert more diversity into the voting process, and give less known, dark horse candidates a better chance at attracting votes. Translate this to mean they are wooing the Hispanic and black votes.

A noble gesture, but not without it's critics, including former President Clinton, the current Governor of NH, and others. They see the measure as tinkering with tradition for no good reason. NH Gov. John Lynch vows to ignore any ruling that affects NH, and to schedule the NH primary to remain first in the nation.

It's not a done deal yet - the full measure must be approved by the Democratic National Committee at their annual meeting next month. But it shows how serious the Democrats are at holding onto the black and latino votes, which was historically theirs all along.

Primaries and caucuses