Has The DNC's Plan To Add A Caucus (Or Two) Hit A Snag?
Eyebrows arched last night as Don Fowler, a member of the DNC's rules and bylaws committee from South Carolina, reminded his fellow RBC members that they hadn't formally voted to add any event to the party's primary calendar -- only that they agreed to consider adding a few states "in principle."
Fowler knows that most RBC members support adding at least one caucus between IA and NH and at maybe one primary after NH but before the "window" opens on Feb. 5.
The irony: the consensus on the committee is that South Carolina, Fowler's beloved home state, has the best shot of getting the post-NH primary slot.
So Fowler is working, in a sense, against the interest of his state's Democratic Party.
But Fowler, and others on the committee like member Harold Ickes, are sticklers for the rules. And Fowler is technically correct. The primary calendar commission appointed by Terry McAuliffe recommended a framework for the rules and bylaws committee to set a calendar for '08. It didn't proscribe anything.
The likeliest scenario is that the committee will once again debate the desirability of more early caucus or primary states and then formally vote to approve a plan to add at least one.
That's not to say the debate hasn't advanced: since the commission ended its work last December, more than a dozen states from CA to FL have signaled their intention to move up their presidential primaries, giving credence to fears that the DNC commission plan would incentivize frontloading.
That's the new reality underlaying the RBC's committee's debate.
So we hate to end with "anything's possible."
But... [MARC AMBINDER]
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