Indiana Primaries May 6th! What's the point?

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Permalink Reply by Erik Deckers on March 5, 2008 at 4:25pm

I think the Election Board or the political parties can move the date. It varies from state to state, but I don't know how Indiana does it. But the way things are playing out in the Democratic party, we might have a say. You never know.

And as a consolation, you CAN vote for Julia Carson's replacement in a special election next week.

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Permalink Reply by John Uhri on March 5, 2008 at 4:31pm

Most other states have been moving their primaries up to be closer to Iowa. I sort of think it should all be on one day, like an election. Then people would be more inclined to make a choice rather than picking the person who is already "winning".

I mind. This was the first election with a candidate I really liked, not just the lesser of a pile of evils. Come election time, though, it will be the lesser of two since my candidate won't get the nomination.

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Permalink Reply by Amol Dalvi on March 5, 2008 at 10:16pm

I agree, having Indiana primary later in the season has little impact. This year I am sure a lot of states are thinking the same as us - why are we so much later in the primary process?

It looks like this year's primary is going matter after all, on the Demoratic side at least.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin M. Hill on March 6, 2008 at 1:44pm

I think it will be interesting to see how many traditionally Republican voters cast Democratic primary ballots purely becuase the Republican nomination is already done.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Sanders on March 5, 2008 at 11:14pm

Indiana is long on historical tradition. It's not so much that we "wait so long" as it is other states have moved their primaries forward. Granted, our primary has nearly no impact since the two party candidates are determined long before our primary takes place, but the act of going to the polls to select our candidate should not be clouded or influenced by the actions of the rest of the nation. That being said, if we could just get beyond our Hoosier adherences to tradition, we could move our primary to Super Tuesday. We could also accomplish more in other areas, including economic development, if we could shake other traditional processes. Doing things because "That's the way we've always done it" will certainly keep us behind the curve in all aspects of our daily lives.

Welcome to Indiana.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on March 6, 2008 at 5:26am

Waiting as late as we do does reduce the influence we have on a national scope and I agree it is time for a chane.

We finally moved to DAylight Savings Time, maybe changing our primary date isn't far behind.

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Permalink Reply by Brad Williams on March 6, 2008 at 8:00am

Think of the press the state would have received if our primaries were a few weeks ago. Just by moving the date up we would in fact receive a huge amount of FREE press for our state and have a voice on who our next president could be.

It just seems like Hoosiers, and the local news, do not cover this topic at all.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Huff on March 6, 2008 at 9:38am

I've got a feeling that Indiana will receive possibly more media coverage this year than if we voted earlier (say Super Tuesday). the Democratic race will still be close even after Pennsylvania, and Indiana does offer a fair number of delegates to whoever wins our state.
There's a lot of jockeying and posturing by all of the states to determine who's going to vote when. Add in all of the party rules and it can get as complicated to understand as the tax code.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Bluto on March 6, 2008 at 3:01pm

Good discussion topic Brad. But, isn't the bigger question why are we still bound to a two party system. Our country touts democracy all over the world but does little at home to break the stranglehold of a two party system, out of control lobbying and fundraising that seems to be slowing us down. Money and politics drives our election process when it should be about the people. That is where the real ideas come from. That is what makes this country great.

In some ways it is similar to the problem with college football and no true national playoff series to determine who is champion. It's all money and politics.

Come to think of it. What do you all think of online polls on websites like this that gauge member opinion?

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Permalink Reply by Amol Dalvi on March 6, 2008 at 3:12pm

Chris - I am not sure the two party system is all that bad. I grew up in country that has multi-party system. Money and politics are inter-twined just as much. There are all sorts of alliances formed and then broken. There is fragmentation of existing parties. And the parties become more about the personalities than the issues. I dont want to make it sound like it is all bad - there is representation from various constituencies; but the price to pay is chaos and a "musical chair" of parties.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Huff on March 6, 2008 at 3:14pm

You make a very good point. I had a discussion last night with Jim Brown, and I'll give him credit for this point; most Americans are not far left or far right when it comes to political standing. In actuality, the American political landscape looks like a bell curve. The vast majority are somewhere in the middle. If I could take the 4 Presidential candidates and pick and choose who's issues to use, I'd have one hell of a President. Too bad I can't do that.

As for online polls, I I really do like the ability to provide my opinion and topics that I find important or interesting. However, if nothing is done with the information, I wasted 5-10 minutes. It's like that boss who wants employee feedback, but doesn't make the effort to make personal/professional changes based on that feedback. All of this leads to disenchantment.

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Permalink Reply by Lorraine Ball on March 7, 2008 at 6:57am

Yesterday's Headlilne : Suddenly, We Matter

With no clear winner in the democratic primary race the Indiana primary will be an important one, even though it is fairly late in the season.

That is encouraging, but the headline bothered me. Suddenly, We Matter - gives the feeling the writer herself can't believe we would ever be important. If local media doesn't think we are influential, how will we get the rest of the country to think we are?

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