With Michigan and Florida hoping to have more of an influence in the Democratic primaries, they moved their primary election dates to the front of the line. This move, however backfired as several of the leading candidates have decided not to participate in pre-primary campaigning in the states that have gone against the wished of the Democratic National Committee by hosting primaries before February 5, 2008.
Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards have all signed pledges not to campaign in states that have gone against the wishes of the DNC, and the DNC has threatened to remove the delegates from the pre-election process. The trio of Democrats join a growing number of Republicans who see the move to an earlier primary as a bonus for them to influence party affiliation in the primaries.
By moving the primary to January 29th, Florida hoped to have a bigger impact on the candidate choices. Now, however the leading candidate see no reason to campaign for delegates in a state in which delegate may not be available, due to the DNC’s decision to pull them back.
Michigan’s decision to hold its primary as early as January 15, 2008 is also being viewed as a slap towards the DNC rules and the state may also be ignored by the candidates signing pledges to avoid states that hold a primary prior to February 5, 2008. Except for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which according to USA Election Polls (USAElectionPolls.com), represent candidates based on their ideas and not on the size of the campaign funds, there should be no other primary elections or Iowa-style caucuses prior to February 5.
