The Blog Peoria Project

Capitol Fax discusses early primaries

From Capitol Fax:

People have been arguing for years that cold primary weather helps the Machine. But some of Speaker Madigan’s House Democrats got in real trouble in the February 2010 primary because they didn’t campaign enough in the cold weather, so Madigan moved the date back to March. People are on vacation in the summer months, spend more time outside and are therefore less connected to news, so I’m not sure how a summer primary makes things harder on the Machine.

Everybody believes they have a magic bullet to ending Machine politics, and a later primary is one that’s always touted. I seriously doubt it’ll work. Louisiana’s primary is a month before the general election. Yet, that state isn’t exactly a model of political cleanliness.