George,

National Democratic party leaders have recently made a decision that will make it more difficult for a candidate with broad national appeal to win the presidential nomination in 2008. A Rules and Bylaws Committee has been working for over a year to tweak the primary process in a way that would allow states that are more representative of the national electorate to become early players. The current system is front-loaded with two rather non-representative states: Iowa and New Hampshire. The Committee decided to select a state that would represent a greater cross-section of the country than Iowa and New Hampshire and have that state hold a caucus on the Saturday between the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. A good idea -- except that they chose Nevada to be that "representative" state!

One thing that can be said for Nevada is that it is in the West -- the wild West. Only Utah is less representative of the West than Nevada.

Most voters in Nevada work in gambling casinos, in hotels, in brothels or they are retired Californians. Candidates for the Democratic party nomination will have to pass muster with this representative cross-section of the national electorate! This will help assure that they have the broad appeal necessary to win in November!

Yes, about a quarter of the voters in Nevada are union members or come from union households. But this union membership is narrowly based -- mostly hotel and restaurant workers. Only about 7 percent of the population of Nevada is African-American -- better representation of blacks than Iowa and New Hampshire, but certainly not enough to be representative of many states that Democrats need to win the presidency.

Almost 23 percent of the Nevada population is Hispanic. Democratic presidential candidates had better start taking Spanish lessons.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee has also proposed that South Carolina hold a primary a week after New Hampshire. This way, candidates for presidential nomination will be tested in all sections of the country early in the primary process -- East, Mid-west, West and South. But something is glaringly missing: urban and suburban. Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina have no major metropolitan areas.

How could the Rules and Bylaws Committee come up with such a poor choice as Nevada? The answer is: "politics as usual". Rewarding powerful party leaders trumps sound strategic thinking. The Democratic party leader in the Senate comes from Nevada. Harry Reid lobbied hard to get his state chosen for the national spotlight during primary season.

David RePass (electronic mail, July 26, 2006)