COOK FAVORS REGIONAL PRIMARY PLAN FOR COUNTRY

Presidential candidates hopscotch from coast-to-coast in a dizzying array of party primaries.

It may make for good television, but it's no way to run presidential primaries, says Missouri Secretary of State Bekki Cook.

Cook favors a plan for four regional primaries that is being promoted by the National Association of Secretaries of State.

She said it would make it easier for less-funded candidates to compete. "They don't have to fly off all around the country."

Cook said a regional primary system hopefully would reduce the effect of big money and special interests in presidential campaigns.

Under the plan, party primaries to select national convention delegates would be grouped by geographical region.

There would be East, South, Midwest and West primaries, with a different primary held each month, March through June, in presidential election years.

The East grouping would include Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.

The South would cover Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

States in the Midwest primary would include Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

The West primary would include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Guam.

The regional primaries would exclude Iowa and New Hampshire. The Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary would retain their traditional, leading positions in the presidential selection process.

The regional primaries would be rotated so that each geographic area would be first once every 16 years.

Primaries would be scheduled on or soon after the first Tuesday in March, April, May and June of presidential election years.

The National Association of Secretaries of State want to hold the regional primaries, beginning in 2004.

But Cook said the primaries won't occur without the support of the national Democratic and Republican parties, and state legislatures.

She said it is unlikely that a regional primary plan could be implemented before 2008 at the earliest.

Cook said the plan would shorten the presidential selection process. A shorter period of campaigning would please the public, she said.

The current campaign season is too long, said Cook. "We don't need to be consumed with selecting presidential candidates in January when the election is in November."

The Iowa caucuses were held in late January this year. The New Hampshire primary occurred on Feb. 1.

With no regional primary scheduled before March, the Iowa and New Hampshire contests could be pushed back, Cook said.

The current system of primaries is front loaded with early primaries that make it difficult for less-known and less-funded candidates to stay in for the long haul, she said. By mid-March, a majority of the convention delegates have been selected.

Missouri voters will go the polls on March 7 in the state's first presidential primary since 1988. Ten other states, including delegate-rich New York and California, will be holding Republican and Democratic primaries the same day.

Cook said the Republican and Democratic nominations could well be decided by that round of primaries.

"Let's face it, after March 7, I am not sure there is much left to do," said Cook.

Cook acknowledged the tradition of New Hampshire holding the first primary. But she said logically Missouri would be a better first-primary state.

Missouri, she said, is a bellwether state. It is in the middle of the country. It has urban and rural areas. In some ways, it is both a northern and southern state, Cook said.

Missouri has its share of Republicans and Democrats. It has a substantial minority population too, she said.

In the general election, the state voted for the winning presidential candidate in all but one presidential race in the 20th century. In 1956, Missouri went for Adlai Stevenson over the winner, Republican Dwight Eisenhower.

Mark Bliss can be contacted at 335-6611 ext. 123 or by e-mail at mbliss@semissourian.com.