Democratic Party shouldn't bend the rules for Florida

Editor,

I applaud the Democratic National Committee's recent action toward Florida and the impact of its primary on both the traditional guidelines set forth on the Democratic primary calendar and on the effect it has on small states.

The committee had worked out a schedule, greatly reducing the impact of Iowa and New Hampshire without knocking them out of the game. The changes went a long way in reforming the primary schedule. By adding Nevada's caucus, it gave our candidates a reason to spend many days and dollars working over that small battleground purple state so near to tipping our direction.

Adding South Carolina to the primary process was going to make up for Iowa and New Hampshire being too white. The plan was to have candidates excite African-American voters, who are our party's core constituency, and do it without alienating whites.

The committee didn't want big states among the four early contests in order to keep campaign costs low, to allow for ground organization and to make sure that retail politics at least have a chance. By having small, obscure states in control, it gave the various candidates in our party the ability and opportunity to compete.

But did the tweaking by the committee yield a representative plan? Look at the four states originally involved in the early contests. Obviously, everyone is jealous of New Hampshire and denounces its too-white demographics. Yet, many of the Northeastern states are look-alikes. And, oh, how they hate Iowa.

Well, looking on the bright side, Iowa stands in for very similar Midwestern states such as Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. And, maybe, the eastern half of Montana. Alabama, Mississippi and even Georgia are Dixieland clones of South Carolina. Indeed, it has much in common with Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, and perhaps Kentucky and Virginia, too. Nevada is sparsely populated, except for one major metro area and one smaller city. New Mexico is a twin, while Arizona and Colorado are Southwestern siblings. The committee had a very efficient plan: Four early states would stand in for many similar ones and represent more than half the 50 states before the big-state primaries kicked in.

Unfortunately, Florida wants to have things its way: Floridians want their votes to count among the first. Well, like most UNM students, I have been a lifelong resident of New Mexico. I got to vote for Howard Dean back in 2004 when the nominee, John Kerry, had already been crowned. But I've never voted among the first. I know that not everyone can be first. Florida needs to realize that the Democratic Party has rules for a reason. If we are allowed to bend the rules for Florida, what is to prevent other states such as California, New York and Texas from initiating early primaries?

Daniel S. Martinez

UNM student