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July 21, 2005

Mary Dalrymple

WASHINGTON — The Democrats’ election calendar leaves minorities feeling left out of the presidential nominating process because it starts with two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, that don’t reflect the nation’s diverse population, activists told the party on Saturday.

Speaking on behalf of black, Hispanic and Asian voters, activists told a commission examining the Democratic presidential primary system that states with significant minority populations should play an earlier role.

Under the system led by Iowa and New Hampshire, candidates spend less time and money in states that vote later.

“What we have created is the worst of all possible worlds,” said Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of the American Electorate.

For decades, the Iowa caucuses have been the first nominating contest, followed closely by New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary. Defenders of their special status argue that candidates must meet their party’s supporters and other voters face to face for the most personal politicking of the campaign.

Rep. Hilda Solis of California, a member of the commission, said Democrats have been losing Hispanic voters to the Republican Party, in part because those voters can’t participate in early primaries.

“The Latino vote is now a swing vote,” Solis said.

The problem is worsened when the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire are followed by a crush of early primaries that virtually determine the candidate before voters in other states weigh in, some people at the hearing said. In 2004, 30 states had held delegate selection contests by mid-March.

“The AFL-CIO believes frontloading is a detriment to the process,” said John Sweeney, the union’s president and a commission member.

No state should lead the primary unless it is joined by another state more representative of the party’s diversity and union membership, Sweeney said. “The diversity issue is a major, major issue,” he said.

Ginger Ehn Lew, speaking for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, urged the party to schedule a state with a significant number of Asian American voters, like Washington or Oregon, early in the voting calendar and to recruit more Asian American delegates.

“This should not be a last-minute, token effort,” Lew said. (AP)

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