Remember when Arkansas lawmakers had the keen idea of moving the state’s 2008 presidential primary to February, so that Arkansas would have more influence on the primary process and get more love?
And remember how, when the Democratic primary battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama became so protracted, everyone realized that we would have had much more influence if we’d kept the primary in May? That was really embarrassing, wasn’t it?
Rep. Jon Woods (R-Springdale) plans to offer legislation in the 2009 session to restore the primary to its original May date, primarily, he says, for the sake of cost savings. (According to this Arkansas News Bureau story from May by John Lyon, the Secretary of State’s office estimated that the February primary ended up costing the state about $1.7 million.)
I think The Arkansas Project is going to go ahead and get behind this initiative, and then let us never, ever speak of that whole “early primary” thing again. We’ll just pretend it all never happened.
Here’s a draft of Woods’ bill, thoughtfully provided by our favorite rockin’ politico: PDF copy of Woods primary bill
Update: A closer look at that Lyon story reveals that Rep. Nathan George (D-Dardanelle) is also working along these lines. Say, maybe these two kids should put their heads together! But really, it’s amazing the things I learn when I actually read the things I link to….
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