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I spent today at the 2007 DNC Winter Meeting. In the spirit of openness, the DNC has kindly invited bloggers to cover the meeting. The big event is tomorrow, when the Presidential candidates each give speeches. Blue Jersey will have Jay and Jack there to capture every detail - and perhaps record some podcasts. There were relatively few events scheduled today. Today I attended the Resolutions Committee, the Rules and Bylaws Committee, and the Rural Caucus. On the other hand, I skipped the big party with an open bar. I'll post about each of meetings, but I'd like to start with the new rules on scheduling primaries that were adopted unanimously by the Rules and Bylaws committee, since they're of great importance to New Jersey.
The rules for 2008 seek to give incentives for states to schedule their primaries later in the season. The key is that these are incentives only, so that if New Jersey moves up to February 5 we will not lose any delegates. Since our original date was in June, we would receive a 10% bonus for remaining there. (This is a reward for "good behavior.") By the way, if we moved back to June from an earlier date, we would have gotten a 30% bonus. (Somehow the Prodigal Son comes to mind.)
The co-chair started by joking that this could be a very brief meeting, or a very long one. Indeed, I noticed quite a few people with Iowa and New Hampshire on their badges in the audience, but their states were never mentioned. As it turned out this discussion was brief and not contentious at all. Matters were a bit different on a resolution related to young delegates, which I'll describe later.
I should also note that the written proposal considered a long-term solution for 2012 and beyond, although it was not clear to me whether that was approved in this meeting, since nothing was said about it. I imagine it could be changed anyway. That system gives slightly larger bonuses for moving back with respect to 2004, and penalties for moving forward from 2008. This suggests that the best move for New Jersey is go to February 5 in 2008, since we would not face any future penalties. If we schedule a late February primary in 2008, then we'd face penalties if we moved up more in 2012,.
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