New Law Seeks To Attract More Presidential Candidates To RI
Monday, July 04, 2011
In a year where state lawmakers tackled a budget crisis, approved civil unions and agreed to reconvene in the fall for a special session to address pension reform, the Generals Assembly also did its part to get Rhode Island on the national radar as the 2012 Presidential race heats up.
On the final day of the session, legislators approved a bill that will move Rhode Island’s Presidential Primary from the first Tuesday in March to the final Tuesday in April, matching the date of primaries held in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.
The bill, which was supported by Secretary of State Ralph Mollis, is intended to attract more candidates to the state. The idea: If Rhode Island’s primary falls on the same day as other northeastern states, Presidential hopefuls will be more likely to make the rounds in the Ocean State.
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State Rep. Donald Lally sponsored the bill on the House side, arguing that the state is now in a better position to have a spot in the national picture.
“We may be the smallest state, but we love our politics,” said Representative Lally (D-Dist. 33, Narragansett, North Kingstown, South Kingstown). “Being small, it’s tough for Rhode Island to attract much attention from presidential candidates.”
Lally said the new date will bring in more candidates.
“But if we hold our primary at the same time as a few other nearby states, candidates are more likely to make arrangements to swing through the region and visit us while they’re near. It will give Rhode Island voters more of a chance to be a part of the national political stage. ”
A Win For Rhode Island
State Senator Erin Lynch, who sponsored the bill in the other chamber, said distancing itself further from Super Tuesday is a win for Rhode Island. Super Tuesday, which takes place the first Tuesday in February in 2012, is the day where the greatest number of states hold primary elections.
“This bill will help Rhode Islanders who vote by absentee ballots, while making our primary less of an afterthought nationally, sometime after Super Tuesday,’ Lynch said. “If we team up with some other larger, more populous states and make it worthwhile for candidates to come to this region, Rhode Islanders may have better opportunities to meet them.”
Lynch said she believes Rhode Island will now get more attention from candidates.
“If they’re visiting, they may spend money here on advertising. And if our state gets more attention, that may help engage more voters in primaries,” she said.
National Popular Vote Fails
The new primary date wasn’t the only measure members of the General Assembly hoped to approve in their quest to make the state more relevant when it comes to Presidential elections. Lynch also sponsored a bill that would have committed a majority of the Electoral College to the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
In an e-mail sent out on the final day of the session, former State Rep. David Segal urged the General Assembly to support the measure, known as the National Popular Vote.
“Remember the last time a Presidential candidate visited Rhode Island during the fall campaign? Almost nobody can, because it almost never happens,” Segal wrote. “Over 95 percent of the time and money spent on Presidential campaigns are focused on a dozen or so swing states. States that vote reliably red or blue are pretty much ignored; candidates rarely even bother to run polls in Rhode Island or learn which issues are important to state voters.”
Although the bill passed in the Senate, House Spokesman Larry Berman said, “it passed committee but was never brought to the House floor for debate.”
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