On Thursday March 15, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to move up the California presidential primary from June to February 5, joining several states with primaries that day. Many other states, as many as 15 are considering doing the same. The reasoning for this is to make their states more prominent in the campaign process, drawing attention and media coverage to their state. To me this is a very scary trend, and here's why.

With so many states having primaries that early, the candidates for the 2 major parties are going to be decided very early. The is a terrible blow to the process on several fronts. First and most importantly, this basically means the candidate with the most money the fastest, is most likely going to win. Since February 5th becomes a make or break day for all candidates, they have to raise copious amounts of money to compete.

Now real campaign finance reform is a personal crusade for me, and it will be a main focus of this site, but for now were are not going to get into the details of that.

This is the first presidential election is 80 years without a sitting president or vice president running, the the field is wide open. So how does the average candidate raise the kind of money they will need to compete in a virtual national 1 day primary? Then don't. The only way to raise the amount of money needed will be on name recognition, so that gives Democratic candidates Clinton, Obama and Edwards, and Republican candidates McCain and Giulilani the head start. Independents need not apply. And this forces the big names to take more money from special interests, allowing the corporations to buy their candidates earlier.

Like it or not, agree or not, but it's in the interest of both parties to keep each other in power, and while it may not be the obvious reason for the primary change, it is one of the most logical explanations. So the next thing this change does is limit the voices of lesser known candidates, ones that may have the presences of mind to reform the political landscape. They won't have the money to compete with the advertising of the established candidates, and the media is not going to cover the little guys.

While the ball may be rolling for other states to move up their primaries, it may not be too late to stop it. Let your voice be heard, if you state is considering a primary move, contact your Governor and State Legislature and let them know you wont let them water down any more of your democratic rights.

Contact your elected officials:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world. Indeed. Its the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead