The DNC finally got around to doing what I figured they'd do as soon as I heard they'd pick one new (likely Western) state for a caucus right after Iowa, and one new (likely Southern) state for a primary days after New Hampshire's - they overwhelmingly chose Nevada and South Carolina to fill those slots. Nevada was likely selected due to heavy support from labor and Harry Reid, though that was certainly buttressed by it's growing Latino population and the fact that it's a "purple" state. In the last 4 presidential elections less than 4% of the vote has separated the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees - and it's gone with the winner in all four of those races. So the calendar will be: Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina.
Losers in all this? Arizona, Alabama, and perhaps the presidential campaign of Mark Warner. Mame Reiley, Warner's political guru, spoke in favor of Arizona getting the caucus slot, not Nevada.
UPDATE: Oh, and obviously this could possibly help the John Edwards campaign, since he won South Carolina in 2004. And given Harold Ickes's comments, one might assume that various Clinton allies aren't too pleased about that. Actually, given the look of the Edwards campaign so far, he could do very well in both South Carolina and Nevada.
Posted by armand at July 22, 2006 02:56 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics