Officials from eight different states will make their case today that Iowa and New Hampshire should not retain their “first-in-the-nation” status in the presidential selection process.
Four-hundred delegates are at the Democratic National Committee meeting in New Orleans, but a special subcommittee will hear from the states which hope to knock the Iowa Caucuses out of the lead-off position in the party’s presidential nominating process. The states hoping to horn in on the attention Iowa and New Hampshire receive are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina and Michigan.
A former leader of the Democratic National Committee, though, is warning members of his party’s rules and bylaws committee that changing the calendar could endanger key Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s Democratic governor is up for re-election and former Democratic National Committee chairman Don Fowler says whichever Democrat is nominated to run for governor in Iowa might suffer, too, if the party knocks Iowa out of first place.
A panel appointed by the Democratic National Committee to come up with an alternative plan has recommended that the party allow up to two caucuses in the week after Iowa — and before New Hampshire’s primary — then quickly follow New Hampshire’s primary with two more primaries. The full Democratic National Committee is expected to make a final decision this fall.