It seems like half the places I like to read are asking “what went wrong” and “what’s wrong with the Democratic party”?<\/p>\n
Lots of ideas, but nothing concrete, and nothing that strikes me as particularly helpful useful.<\/p>\n
My thoughts are this: I wasn’t pleased when Kerry was nominated. I had nothing personal against him, but I felt that he wasn’t the best candidate–that he wasn’t going to appeal to the voters needed to win the election.<\/p>\n
That led me to wonder if perhaps something is wrong with our primary process. Which led me to this question:<\/p>\n
How much of a say do the swing states–those states where the election was close (or should have been)–have in the nomination process? I know that personally I’m rather frustrated by the fact that I have never had a say in the nomination process–our primary is in May. This year the primary was essentially over in the beginning of March.<\/p>\n
Sure, the first two states to hold primaries are Iowa and New Hampshire–major swing states. But do Iowa and New Hampshire reflect the rest of the country? <\/p>\n
Here is a list of state that held their primaries after 9 March, and the number of electorial vores for each of those states:<\/p>\n
Kansas 6
\nIllinois<\/b><\/i> 21
\nAlaska 3
\nWyoming 3
\nColorado<\/b> 9
\nNorth Carolina 15
\nPennsylvania<\/i><\/b> 21
\nIndiana 11
\nNebraska 5
\nWest Virginia<\/b> 5
\nArkansas<\/b> 6
\nKentucky 8
\nOregon<\/i><\/b> 7
\nIdaho 4
\nAlabama 9
\nNew Mexico<\/b> 5
\nSouth Dakota 3
\nMontana 3
\nNew Jersey<\/b><\/i> 15\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn bold are the states with elections that were relatively close
\nIn italics are state that went for Kerry<\/p>\n19 states, all but four of which went for Bush. States with 159 Electorial votes had no say in the primary process. <\/p>\n
Does all this mean anything? I don’t know. But I do know that I’ve felt frustrated by my lack of say in the primary process, and felt it difficult to rally behind a candidate I felt only half-hearted about.<\/p>\n
Sources:
\nhttp:\/\/www.cnn.com\/ELECTION\/2004\/primaries\/pages\/scorecard\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.cspan.org\/<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/www.cnn.com\/ELECTION\/2004\/<\/a><\/p>\n