How Does January 5 Sound?

How Does January 5 Sound?

And how does caucusing twice sound?

More activity Friday afternoon on the Caucus Date Leapfrog front and Carl Cameron at (cringe) Fox has this:

Officials in Iowa and New Hampshire in both parties and both state governments have begun discussing the possibility of Iowa’s caucus occurring Saturday, January 5th, and New Hampshire’s primary occurring Saturday, Jan 12th -- in order to accommodate state laws that require Iowa to go first, and a week long buffer for New Hampshire before any similar election.

At a news conference today in Iowa, Democratic Governor Chet Culver pointedly said "yes" when asked if Iowa might caucus on any Saturday.

Iowa's eight days before anyone else law would put us at Friday, Jan. 4. Except, as Todd Beeton of MyDD points out: "Friday night is high school basketball night in Iowa." Bloody obvious and how did I, the son of a basketball coach, miss that?

So we might have to call a special session:

When questioned whether Iowa would have to change its law to reduce the amount of time between its contest and New Hampshire’s, Culver said: “I think we have to be practical about the date. Period.”

If there's going to be a special session to deal with the date, there's another complication that needs to be addressed. The Gazette notes:

Scott Brennan, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, said the caucuses don't necessarily have to take place on a Monday, even though that's traditionally been the day. Also, there is past precedent for Iowa's two political parties to conduct caucuses on different dates but they prefer to hold them simultaneously on the same day.

The last time the Democratic and GOP caucuses were on different nights was 1972, long before the caucuses were THE CAUCUSES. The only person who realized Iowa was first in 1972 was George McGovern, the guy who wrote the rules. No one cared back then, but consider this scenario:

Joe Voter declares himself a Democrat on Jan. 5 and goes to the caucuses.

For whatever reason -- his candidate loses, a sincere change of heart, or sheer orneriness -- he decides "in good faith" he is no longer a Democrat.

On Jan. 14 he re-registers as a Republican and caucuses again.

Under Iowa law any voter can change party affiliation at any time. And because the caucuses are party meetings, not elections, this sort of behavior is not against the law. The only restraint on double-caucusing for 30 years has been the simultaneous time -- you can't be at both without Hermione's time turner. Other states with different dates for the parties either have primaries -- official government-run elections -- or are late enough in the process that no one cares.

If word gets out that Iowans will not only vote first, but they can also "vote" twice, the caucuses are dead and in 2012 we'll have a meaningless June primary between incumbent president Barack Rodham Edwards and Lyndon LaRouche. This is a problem we need to head off at the pass with a stiff legal penalty for double caucusing.