You may have noticed that Mitt Romney overwhelmingly captured primaries in Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday.
The pundits say those victories put him even nearer to the inevitable coronation as the Republican primary’s nominee for president.
Haven’t we been hearing that for weeks?
It also means that New Jersey’s primary, which will be held June 6, has been rendered virtually meaningless yet again.
New Jersey traditionally has chosen to come at the end of the line of primaries. Theoretically, that could be great all the attention of the candidates and the media could shower down on the Garden State, and we could show off our virtues and maybe even politick for some little political plum.
Look at recent political history, though, and it’s hard to see a race going to the wire ever again. Political parties want to have their nominees chosen and resting up by this time of the campaign season, making visits to the “swing” states and raising money like mad.
Four years ago, New Jersey tried to be a player in the primary election sweepstakes and moved its presidential primaries to the first week in February. That turned out to be the so-called Super Tuesday, and we got swamped by the other 23 states. We were the younger sister again.
To top it off, we held a second primary in June for state, county and local races. Two primary days in one year was confusing to many voters, too.
It seems like New Jersey just can’t get it right.
Looking at Tuesday’s elections, we wonder why New Jersey was not there among its Middle Atlantic sister states.
For the most part, New Jersey has ended its tradition of April school elections. Whatever holdouts there were in the first year will likely fall in line, starting next year.
So, a late April primary date would not have a conflict there.
It would also make a tidy regional primary, where candidates could concentrate their time, energy and advertising dollars. The weather is good, and late April wouldn’t be too late to envision having a potential impact in a presidential year.
We don’t think anyone is crazy about a June primary. Who is thinking of voting when graduations, summer jobs and vacations are competing for attention?
So how about it? We like late April for our permanent primary election date.
