[EM] Senators Want Nomination Changes

[DEMOREP1 at aol.com]

Only one slight problem- any such plan blatantly violates the 1st and 10th 
Amendments.  The obvious remedy - the direct nonpartisan nomination and 
election of the U.S. President/Vice President by ALL of the voters in the 
U.S. (via a constitutional amendment repealing the ultra-dangerous 12th 
Amendment).
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Senators Want Nomination Changes

.c The Associated Press

  
WASHINGTON (AP) - Two senators from different political parties and opposite 
ends of the nation introduced legislation Tuesday that would require 
presidential nominees to be picked by region in 2004, rather than the current 
selection process led by New Hampshire and Iowa. 

The sponsors, Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., 
acknowledged, however, that the four senators from those first-in-the nation 
states would filibuster their bill to death. 

``I understand the local interest'' among New Hampshire and Iowa lawmakers in 
killing the bill, Lieberman told reporters. ``But overall, this system is not 
serving the country well.'' 

The bill is the latest shot in a fight over the nomination schedule, which 
next year is set so that roughly 75 percent of the delegates will be picked 
by March 7. Both parties are almost certain to have a nominee within six 
weeks of Iowa's opening test. Critics say the system gives the first states 
too much influence over the process, and puts undue pressure on candidates to 
race around the country. 

The system, Gorton said, has become ``an absurd rush to judgment'' that does 
not resemble the vision the nation's founders had of considered nominee 
selection. 

``Small and large states with later primaries are shut out of the selection 
process,'' Gorton said. 

The bill is identical to the one he and Lieberman introduced in 1996, but the 
Senate never acted on it. Its prospects this year are just as bleak, they 
conceded. 

Gorton and Lieberman propose that the first Tuesdays in March, April, May and 
June be primary election dates for specific regions of the country - similar 
to having a ``Super Tuesday'' for each area, the sponsors said. The four 
regions would consist of 12 or 13 states, divided into West, Midwest, South 
and Northeast. The national parties would assign territories, such as Guam 
and Puerto Rico, to one of the four regions. 

Each state would determine how its delegates would be picked, selecting 
either a winner-takes-all method of representation at the national 
convention, or a proportional plan. Each state also would decide whether to 
hold caucuses or primaries. 

AP-NY-10-26-99 1925EDT