Proposal for 2012 Primaries

From December 2007 to March 2008, I wrote various drafts of a proposal on how our political parties — starting in 2012 — might adopt primary election procedures that would better serve our country in selecting presidential candidates. I originally drafted a hypothetical calendar for 2008, based on general election results from 2004. Now that we have the results for 2008, I can now propose a calendar specific to 2012.

The system by which our parties choose their presidential candidates has proven itself to be, at best, highly questionable — at worst, severely flawed.

The primary calendar we need most is one that is built on an orderly and rational plan — one that is based on mathematics and on recent historical outcomes — and not on an arbitrary, publicity-driven, system of one-upsmanship. The change I propose would provide for a more effective, equitable process than the one we have now.

The following factors are the key ones to consider:

Margin of Victory

- The state primaries would be placed in order according to the leading candidates’ margins of victory in the preceding general election — with the states registering the closest margins of victory going first.

For example, John McCain won Missouri by 0.1% and Barack Obama won North Carolina by 0.4%; conversely, McCain won Wyoming by 33%, and Obama won Hawaii by 45%. Therefore, the primary calendar I propose would commence with primaries being held in states such as Missouri and North Carolina — and would close with such states as Wyoming and Hawaii.

- The purpose of ordering the states according to the margin of victory is to help the parties determine which candidates can appeal to those states that have found themselves most recently on the Electoral Divide. A narrow margin in the general election is reflective of an evenly divided electorate. In this scenario, a candidate who appeals to, say, Florida and Montana is more likely to appeal to a greater number of Americans on the whole.

Iowa, New Hampshire, and Fairness

- Iowa and New Hampshire might object to this new system, given their longstanding tradition of being the first states to cast their ballots. However, so long as Iowa and New Hampshire retain their record of being fairly bipartisan states, they’ll maintain their position towards the front of the primary schedule.

- Just because a state should have its primary later in the season does not mean that that state will prove invaluable to the process. Indiana and North Carolina weren’t held until May 6th, but those two states might have very well decided the fate of the 2008 Democratic nomination.

- This new system allows other states to play a greater role in how the parties select their candidates. For example, Missouri and North Carolina would be two of the states to get the limelight in 2012. Likewise, based on the results to come in November of 2012, a still-different slate of states could have a more significant role come 2016. A rotating system will be healthier and fairer.

Groupings of Five, and Timing & Spacing

- By placing states into groupings of five, no one state will be overly emphasized on any given date.

- Candidates will still need to address the concerns of individual states, whilst having to maintain an overall national platform. For example, a candidate will be less able to campaign against NAFTA in Ohio whilst campaigning for it in Florida.

- Given that each state has its own system for electing its delegates, these groupings of five states will act as an overall balancer. Ideally, caucuses will be done away with altogether by 2012. However — should that not happen — states with caucuses, states with open primaries, and states with closed primaries can all coexist within a grouping, therefore no one system will hold too much influence on any given date.

- Racial and geographic diversity in this process has been a great concern for many. The narrowest margins of victory in 2008 were in a wide variety of regions — the Midwest, the Great Lakes, the Mid-Atlantic, the South, and the West.

- All parties would have an interest in addressing these narrow-margined states early on. The incumbent will want to win over those states that were most in doubt of him in the previous election, and opposing parties will want to put forth candidates who have the best chance of winning over those very same states.

- Primaries will be held biweekly, giving candidates and the media enough time to process and respond to the outcomes of each wave of primaries.

- Washington DC will be placed in the same grouping as whichever state — Virginia or Maryland — is closer to its own margin of victory.

- American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and Americans Abroad — not having Electoral votes of their own — will determine their own primary dates, so long as they occur between the first grouping and the last grouping.
Under these guidelines, the proposed calendar for the 2012 primary season is:

January 2012

Tue, 1/10

Missouri
North Carolina
Indiana
Florida
Montana

Tue, 1/24

Ohio
Georgia
Virginia
Colorado
South Dakota

Tue, 2/7

North Dakota
Arizona
South Carolina
Iowa
New Hampshire

Tue, 2/21

Minnesota
Pennsylvania
Texas
Nevada
West Virginia

Tue, 2/26

Mississippi
Wisconsin
New Jersey
New Mexico
Tennessee

Tue, 3/6

Kansas
Nebraska
Oregon
Kentucky
Michigan

Tue, 3/20

Washington
Maine
Louisiana
Arkansas
Alabama

Tue, 4/3

Connecticut
California
Illinois
Delaware
Maryland
Washington DC

Tue, 4/17

Alaska
Idaho
New York
Massachusetts
Rhode Island

Tue, 5/1

Utah
Oklahoma
Wyoming
Vermont
Hawaii

P.U.M.A Will Bower on “On the Record w/ Greta” @ 10:30PM EST Tonight (10/29/08) UPDATE: Video Added

P.U.M.A Will Bower shall be on “On The Record W/ Greta” somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 PM EST tonight, 10/29/08.

Hopefully you didn’t waste 30 minutes of your life tuning in to the drivel Obama broadcast on National TV tonight, however, Will’s appearance is somethinging you don’t want to miss.

Here’s the Video:

 

PUMA Power...

Will Bower’s History of P.U.M.A…

As some of you may or may not know, Will Bower is one of the founders of this site. If you’ve watched any news clippings on P.U.M.A in the last few months, chances are you’ve seen him.

Anyway, he wrote this piece on P.U.M.A for the Huffington Post, great stuff, and here are some excerpts:

I was one of the administrators of the FaceBook group “Hillary Clinton for President.” We asked our like-minded peers in the Hillary group to change their profile photos to pictures of pumas, and to change their “Political Affiliation” to “PUMA”… and, within days, three individual FaceBook PUMA groups had already spun off from the original Hillary group.

Erika Niedowski, a journalist for “The National”, noticed all this FaceBook activity and, on June 7th, decided we were worth an introduction to the press.

Little did I know that there was already a hotbed of PUMA activity elsewhere in the blogosphere. Over at Riverdaughter’s “The Confluence” — inspired by the very same RBC ruling — a commenter known as “SM” (now “SM77″) had shouted out that very acronym, and Riverdaughter leapt into action with “The PUMA Unparty.” Soon thereafter, their fellow ‘Conflucian’, Darragh Murphy, would set “PUMA Pac” into motion.

We were soon able to come together and join forces — along with several other like-minded groups — as members of a united front. Diane Mantouvalos, co-founder of HireHeels.com, had noticed the backlash amongst disaffected Democrats within the blogosphere and, on the eve of Hillary Clinton’s suspension speech, decided to plan a conference call to unite the many disparate factions under one umbrella. It was during this call that the “Just Say NO DEAL” coalition was born.

Within 24 hours, Thuc Nguyen and I were on FOX News to announce the birth of this coalition. Granted, it was the first time either of us had ever appeared on a major news network, and we were a little bit green at it. However, we weren’t so green as to stop the movement in its tracks.

Many interviews soon followed, as did blog talk radio stations devoted to the PUMA cause, and documentaries on caucus fraud (such as GiGi Gaston’s “We Will Not Be Silenced” and Lorenda Starfelt and Brad Mays’ “The Audacity of Democracy”). An explosion of new PUMA-related web sites within the “Just Say NO DEAL” coalition emerged and within weeks, PUMA had been mentioned and/or featured on all the major networks and news networks, even getting the attention of “Meet the Press”.

Since those early days, one of our greatest successes has been to help get Hillary Clinton’s name placed into nomination at the Democratic Convention. Back in early June, Sue Castner and other brave delegates — with the help of a few non-delegate activists — launched an initiative to form the 300-delegate petition required to place a candidate’s name into nomination.

Posted by AD76

P.U.M.A Power

Our P.U.M.A strength is in our diversity.

Not every P.U.M.A is Democratic party partisan.

Not every P.U.M.A is voting for John McCain.

However,

Every P.U.M.A believes Barack Obama and the DNC stole the Democratic Party nomination from Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Every P.U.M.A is committed to legally ensuring that Barack Obama is NOT rewarded for stealing the nomination by being elected President.

Every P.U.M.A is aware that the DNC and Obama calculated that by the time he gets the nomination, all of Hillary’s supporters would come around and vote for him in November.

Every P.U.M.A is comitted to proving the above calculation wrong.

18 Million men and women of all ethnic, geographic, religious and sexual backgrounds voted for Hillary in the primaries. Therefore, it is a major misconception that P.U.M.A is made up entirely of middle-aged women from rural areas. Both GrandPUMA and Will Bower, two well known P.U.M.As are male residents of major cities , NY and DC respectively.

P.U.M.As are everywhere, many of us are not vocal, many of us are not politically active, but on election day we are NOT voting for Obama, and more importantly, we are making sure other people don’t vote for him too.

We are in it to win it, and if all we end up accomplishing is ensuring that 10% of Hillary’s 18 million votes don’t go to Obama, we would succeed in our quest.

Posted by GrandPUMA

Daily Show on… P.U.M.A…

Where is Waldo? Just kidding, two of our very own P.U.M.As are on the show… Guess which ones…

Here is the clip, just in case you can’t view it in your browser, click on the link here

PS John Oliver, we DON’T need a child psychologist, but “Obama” being chased and brought down by a brown dog… hmmm

TONIGHT at 8pm EST — “DELEGATE NIGHT” on “No We Won’t” P.U.M.A. Radio !!

 

 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/NO-WE-WONT/2008/08/18/NO-WE-WONT

 

Please join us tonight (at 8pm EST) for yet another action packed show!

Dr. Lynette Long (of http://www.lynettelong.com/caucusfraud) will be joining us to tell us about how — had it not been for the the anti-democratic nature of this year’s caucuses (and of caucusing in general) — that it would actually be Hillary Clinton who would now have the delegate lead today. 

Then, Michele Thomas of the HRC 300 Delegates petition will be with us to discuss the continued importance of that petition, and will be joined by Sacha Millstone (whose delegate status was threatened by the Colorado Democratic Party) and Deb Bartosevich (the Wisconsin delegate who *did* lose her delegate status). 

Listen in and learn how your party officials are subverting your vote.

Thank you,

Will Bower & Sheri Tag

“No We Won’t” P.U.M.A. Radio

 

David Shuster Lies for Barack Obama on Hardball

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fXUqzTj910

 

THANK you, Paul !!

P.U.M.A on CQ Politics…

Taken from CQPolitics…

The move will give voice to Clinton supporters who have argued that she — and her delegates — deserve the chance to express their preference after the protracted presidential nominating schedule. Activist groups including PUMA (Party Unity My Ass, or, People United Means Unity) have called for representation at the convention and argue that the Clinton is the rightful nominee.

Will Bower, co-founder of PUMA said he was thrilled by the news, but that now he will be doubling his efforts to convince delegates to vote for Clinton on the floor.

But Bower hardly sounded conciliatory: “We need to communicate that Hillary is the true Democrat,” he said. “That Obama has betrayed all of the core principals that matter the most to his core supporters, like the war in Iraq, FISA, etc. We’re going to keep the message alive that she is the truer candidate, the more electable candidate.”

Book to be Written by *You*, PUMAs !!

http://thinkupset.com/

 

 

*Double Header Sunday* — LANNY DAVIS and then RICKI LIEBERMAN to be on “No We Won’t” P.U.M.A. Radio!!

for Sunday, July 27th, 8pm EST

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/NO-WE-WONT/2008/07/28/NO-WE-WONT-PUMA-RADIO

 

PUMAs!

I can’t tell you how excited I am for EPISODE ELEVEN of “No We Won’t” P.U.M.A. Radio!  

Beginning at 8pm EST, we’ll be hosting one of my (and our) heroes from this campaign season, LANNY DAVIS.  While it’s true that he is currently giving Obama his support, no one was braver or more articulate in supporting Hillary on the campaign trail than was Lanny.  I still consider him our friend.  We look forward to giving him a warm welcome, and to asking him about ways in which we can support the process of having Hillary Clinton’s name placed into nomination at Convention.

But the show doesn’t stop there!  At 9pm EST, we will be welcoming Hillraiser RICKI LIEBERMAN of “ToGetHer4Us” and “The Electability Watch” to discuss her ongoing efforts to make sure that the most electable candidate, Hillary Clinton, is the Democratic nominee.

As always, please be aware that — regardless of what blogtalkradio.com may tell you — the show will begin at 8pm EST Sunday night.

This is a Must-Listen-To show, folks!   We look forward to meeting up with you again at “No We Won’t P.U.M.A. Blog Talk Radio!”

Will Bower & Sheri Tag

“No We Won’t” P.U.M.A. Radio

 

Ps — Have you started planning a local PUMA Gathering in your neighborhood for the weekend of August 1-3?  Ground swell!  Now is the time!     Will  (PUMA/Just Say NO DEAL)

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