Republican-held bodies have a partisan incentive for canceling primaries: President Bush is obviously the party’s nominee. In Colorado, where canceling the primary saved the state $2.2 million, the minority Democrats are now forced to shell out party funds for a caucus, which draws far fewer voters and garners only a fraction of the media attention. Another reason states are parting with primaries is that a candidate-selection process that used to take all spring now predicts winners in early March. States with primaries late in the game have minimal influence: by the time Colorado held its primary in March 2000, John McCain and Bill Bradley had dropped out of the race.
In Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano moved her state’s primary to Feb. 3 for 2004, following the lead of Oklahoma, Virginia and Tennessee, which bumped their primaries to early February. Napolitano’s decision came right after she vetoed a bill to eliminate the primary altogether–a measure that would have saved her state about $3 million. “Arizona can well afford the price of democracy,” she wrote.
