Wisconsin’s primary is put on the schedule as a critical test — the last major challenge in a delegate-rich state before Super Tuesday. With this in mind, it’s easy to forget that the next important date on the calendar is not March 2; it’s February 24.
Sure, Super Tuesday is the largest voting day in the nominating process (thus, the name “super”). 10 states will host primaries with a whopping 1,151 delegates at stake. It will likely be a day in which the fight for nomination will be over and the general election campaign can begin in earnest.
But on the way to March 2, three states — Hawaii, Idaho, and Utah — will host two caucuses and a primary that the candidates will completely ignore.
The truth is, I kind of feel sorry for them. They won’t get any “face time” with the candidates, they won’t hear any of the ads, and they won’t enjoy any of the national spotlight that comes with a presidential campaign. In fact, this is really their only chance at some recognition, because each of these three easy-to-predict states (a combined 13 votes in the Electoral College) will also be ignored during the general election.
In sum, they’re hosting key February contests with 61 delegates up for grabs, but no one cares.
As the LA Times noted today:
While voters in Iowa and New Hampshire enjoyed months of face time with the Democratic hopefuls, and states such as Michigan, Tennessee and Arizona had their share of candidate meet-and-greets, voters in Hawaii, Idaho and Utah must settle for local aides acting as fill-ins or, at best, closed-circuit TV appearances by the White House aspirants.
[…]
Democratic officials in the states voting Tuesday are taking such comments in stride; they know their place in the party’s political pecking order. But that doesn’t mean they have to like it.
Couldn’t Kerry and Edwards send a couple of staffers to each state, just as a courtesy?