REGIONAL SAMPLING

Establishment of regional presidential primaries sounds like a better idea than it is. Sen. Alan Dixon of Illinois has resurrected the proposal by introducing legislation to divide the country into eight regions for purposes of holding the primaries. This is his third try.

One stated goal of Sen. Dixon is to reduce what he regards as the inordinate influence of two small states, Iowa and New Hampshire, on the nominating process. ...

The simultaneous Super Tuesday primaries in the South in 1988 might be regarded as a first experiment in the regional concept. It didn't work very well. For one thing, the candidates' time was stretched so thinly that the smaller states in the region received hardly any attention at all.

The present primary-caucus system admittedly is imperfect, but the regional approach is not necessarily the answer.

From The Paducah Sun