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Postponement of the Primary Election
Posted 04-17-2002
We are a few weeks away from what is suppose to be the 2002 spring
primary election, and the questions have changed from "which candidates will
win?" to "when will there be an election?" Everyone was surprised that a
panel of Federal court judges ruled the new congressional district
boundaries were unconstitutional. The ruling itself was a surprise and so
was the timing. The Republican party is supposedly going in front of the
United States Supreme Court to get that court to overrule the lower Federal
court panel of judges. So everything could be the way it is currently
proposed if that "non-partisan" Supreme Court overrules the lower court.
If the impact were only on
the congressional races, it would be disruptive enough. But, the word coming
out of Harrisburg is that the Republican controlled legislature is
considering postponing the entire primary election. That means all the
legislative races, state senate races, and the race for governor and
lieutenant governor would also be postponed. If those parts of the 2002
primary election are postponed, it could have dire consequences for the
winner of the Democratic primary election for governor.
Both candidates (Bob Casey
and Ed Rendell) have been spending millions of dollars with a May 21st end
in sight. If that deadline is extended, it could damage their financial
strategies to stay on television. It could weaken the impact of their
advertisements because voters will begin to tune them out. And, it would
shorten the time the winner will have to heal wounds within the party and to
raise money for the general election.
If there is some advantage to
be gained for Republicans, particularly Mike Fisher, their candidate for
governor, does anyone doubt what the Republicans will try to do? Can you
imagine a primary in September with the Democrats then having less than
sixty days to organize a general election campaign? Any postponement even
until July would greatly hurt the Democrats.
Splitting into two primaries
would be the fairest thing for candidates, and there is precedent in other
states for such an arrangement. Texas in 1992 had a legal battle over
congressional boundaries. They held their primary for all other races at its
normal March date and a special congressional election in May of 1992. There
are some Republican legislators that have primary opponents, and they may
want to get the primary over with so that they can concentrate on the
general election. Unless they break from their party and vote with
Democrats, it appears the Republicans will have the votes to do what they
want.
Another group that is going
to suffer under any scenario are Pennsylvania's sixty-seven counties who
must conduct elections. We have contracts with printers to print ballots,
have movers to move voting machines, and must pay all the workers inside the
polling places. If the election is moved to any other date, it could affect
those contracts, affect the locations of polling places, and, most likely,
adversely affect voter turnout. If the election is split into two primaries
with a separate set of races for congress, we'd have to pay for two
elections, unless the Commonwealth pays for a special congressional
election. The fair thing would be for Harrisburg to pay for any costs
associated with multiple primaries or a changed date.
The whole reason that this
problem has arisen is because of the highly partisan nature in which the
Republicans drew up the congressional districts. The boundaries pitted six
Democrat incumbents against each other in the primary and NO republicans. To
shape these districts, municipalities were bisected and some precincts were
even cut in half. Now that a panel of federal judges has declared these
districts to be unconstitutional, the Republicans will scramble to shape new
ones that meet constitutional scrutiny, yet preserve their partisan efforts
to build a large majority within our congressional delegation.
The partisanship is no
surprise; the court ruling and its timing was a surprise. Again, the
Republicans self-serving nature causes problems for everyone, yet the news
media continues to give the Republicans a free pass. Can you imagine if a
Democratic legislature had caused this problem and set up a situation to
benefit our party's candidate for governor? The Republicans would be calling
for special prosecutors to investigate and newspapers like the Tribune
Review would be calling all Democrats evil. |
