Sunday, May 25, 1997
The primary move
The Texas Senate still has a week left to do the whole state
a big favor by moving the date of primaries back to May.
The House passed a perfectly reasonable measure to do that.
But when the bill started through the Senate process, the State
Affairs Committee added a silly provision to keep the January
filing deadline - which defeats the whole purpose of trying to
shorten the political year in the first place and gives incumbents
an unfair advantage by making potential challengers for a November
race declare themselves almost a year ahead of time.
Worse, on its first try the Senate couldn't even muster the
necessary majority of supporters to bring the bill to a vote on
the floor.
There's just no good reason to keep primaries in March or the
filing deadline in January. The March Super Tuesday has failed
utterly in its intended purpose of giving Texas clout in presidential
elections and has instead stretched the campaign season to unnecessary
and expensive lengths for candidates in state and local races.
Trying to keep the deck stacked in incumbents' favor is not
serving the best interests of any Texans other than incumbents.
Moving the primaries back to May is one of the easiest calls the
Legislature could be asked to make. Surely, our state senators
can recognize the right thing to do when it's staring them in
the face.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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