The SF Chronicle offers this report, which begins: “If California’s independent voters want a voice in next year’s presidential primary, they better start paying attention to Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and the rest of the Democratic candidates. While the nearly 20 percent of California voters who register as decline to state will be welcome in the Democratic presidential primary, they will be barred from casting a ballot for any of the Republican presidential hopefuls.”
The California legislature approved a move of the presidential primary to Feb. 5, and the governor is expected to sign the legislation. The early primary is likely to cost counties plenty. With Feb. 5 shaping up to be a mega-primary day, it is hard to see why any candidate would choose to drop out after doing poorly in New Hampshire and Iowa. After all, anyone who is serous about competing for the presidency will now need to spend substantial resources (time and money) competing in what is essentially a national primary on Feb. 5. And they’ll need to spend their resources well in advance of the Iowa caucuses and NH primary.