Bill Would Move Primary From March To February

HB 246 by State Rep. Roberto Alonzo (D-Dallas) would move Texas’ primary elections from March to February if passed by the Texas Legislature when it convenes in January.

Similar legislation stalled during the 80th Session of the Texas legislature. In retrospect, the fact that the legislation stalled was a good thing, because it ensured that Texans had a more dominant role to play in the Democratic Presidential Primary.

However, this cycle, Alonzo’s bill may find some support from Republicans who may hope that the party’s ultra-conservative wing may be able to better influence the 2012 presidential nomination process for their party with an earlier primary.

A couple of things about this bill: Number 1, it moves the filing date up to “65 days” prior to the primary election, as opposed to the set date we have now. By my calculation, that would mean November 30 would be the filing date, meaning the campaign season would run through Christmas and New Years’s.

This could also cause problems because of the state’s “resign to run” laws. Unless I overlooked it, I didn’t see any exemptions the bill created for officeholders whose terms of office expire on January 1 and would likely have to resign to run with the new primary date whereas they didn’t have to before.

Also, the concept of fundraising and campaigning during the Christmas holidays is simply something most politicians would not relish. With the shorter primary schedule, you might as well shorten the filing period, because you have two to three weeks in December and early January where you won’t really be able to campaign. After all, who wants to get contrast mailers along with their Christmas cards? And, who wants to be asked for money for a campaign when they just stood in line outside a Toy’s-R-Us for nine hours in the freezing cold only to end up having to pay $300 more than the MSRP for the latest toy craze their kids want? Nobody.

I wouldn’t mind a moved up primary, but only if the filing period remained in January.

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