Ohio Primary - Moving On Up?
The Columbus Disgrace, er, I mean Dispatch, is reporting that a bill has been introduced in the Ohio Senate to move Ohio’s Primary up to February 5th. Ohio is normally a May primary state, but in 2000, the Ohio Legislature moved up Ohio’s Presidential primary to March to help native-son John Kasich. As with many things that government does, the move didn’t help Kasich who had dropped out of the race by March 2000 and for reasons that still aren’t clear to me, nobody bothered to move the primary date back. So, we now have a March primary every fours years that does nothing except cause local candidates to do door-to-door in the snow during the five hours of daylight we have here in Ohio in January and February.
I have asked everyone I can think of, including the Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, to move the primary either up to February or back to May. I actually prefer the May date because of its impact on local elections. The Ohio GOP Chairman is convinced that no candidate will emerge from Tsunami Tuesday with enough delegates to win the nomination, which will make Ohio critical in March. I understand the logic, but I don’t know if I agree. The Democrat Chair is also against moving the Primary from March, and the House and Senate Caucuses are against any move as well.
So, we’re stuck with a stupid March primary, unless this new bill gets some traction, which is highly unlikely. I like to think about it though, because that would mean the Governor Romney would have to spend some time here in Ohio!!!
-Kyle Joseph Farmer
