Nevada caucus might be one-hit wonder

Lisa Mascaro, Sun Washington Bureau

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007 | 1:13 a.m.

His statement: "I hope we can put more integrity in the process by spacing out the contests instead of cramming them all together."

What's next: A spokesman for Reid says the senator "will do everything to protect Nevada's position" as an early caucus state.

Nevada ought to enjoy the limelight of being an early presidential caucus state now because come 2010 there could be a whole new way of selecting the nominees.

In Washington and in the states, there is a growing sentiment that the chaos of this cycle's nominating contests demands changes - and maybe congressional intervention.

On both sides of the political aisle, states have jumped the queue to hold early elections, creating a system that might well give us presidential nominees before we have a Super Bowl champion.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hinted last week during a conversation with reporters that it might be time to consider a regional primary system before the next presidential election. He expanded on that during a follow-up talk Thursday.

"What I said the other day was that I'm sure we're going to take a look at different ways of doing this in the future," Reid told the Sun. "Whatever happens, I hope we can put more integrity in the process by spacing out the contests instead of cramming them all together.

"I think this is something Congress will look at in the next four years."

Under a bill in the Senate for rotating regional primaries, the nation would be divided into quadrants. All the states in one region, say the Southwest, would hold their contests on a Tuesday in March. The next region would go in April. The next in May. The last in June.

Four years later the schedule would shift so the No. 2 region would move to the front of the queue, and so on.

Under this bill, New Hampshire and Iowa would be exempted from the rotation and continue to enjoy their historical first-in-nation status.

So what about Nevada? This year's grand experiment, which put Nevada near the front of the queue, was supposed to lay a foundation for the state to be an early player for years to come. Will Nevada's early caucus now be just a one-hit wonder?

The timing of Reid's statement is noteworthy: The next day, a committee of the National Association of Secretaries of state, which has been pushing for a regional primary system all year, was meeting in Washington on this very topic.

Part of the debate was to center on whether Nevada, like Iowa and New Hampshire, should be extended special status under the proposals being considered.

Reid's spokesman said the senator "will do everything to protect Nevada's position."

For years there has been talk of creating a rotating regional system. At the 2000 Republican convention, efforts to devise such a system were quashed by White House guru Karl Rove once George Bush won the party nomination because he believed it would be "to the incumbent president's advantage to have everything continually in a mess," Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., testified at a Senate hearing last month.

Alexander has joined Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut on the Senate bill to establish a rotating system. A similar bill has been introduced in the House.

But the national parties bristle at being told what to do by Congress.

Running the primaries and caucuses has been the business of the states and the national parties, and constitutional scholars differ on whether Congress has the authority to meddle. Some insist the Constitution clearly sets limits while others point to federal law that has set the voting age at 18 and to court decisions upholding campaign finance laws, leaving the question unanswered.

That said, neither Republican nor Democratic national committees are necessarily opposed to the concept of regional primaries.

The threat of federal intervention might be just the nudge the parties need to make it so.

Democratic political consultant Donna Brazile, who has long pushed for a nominating process that more accurately reflects the diversity of the states, said, "Out of frustration, Congress is saying maybe we should get involved."

"We don't need legislation," Brazile added. "We need both political parties to start now to make this a reality.

"The days of Iowa and New Hampshire - that old gentlemen's agreement is now out of style," she said. "I don't think voters should select a president before we know the winner of the Super Bowl."

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