News Release
Saturday, March 11, 2006
Contact:
Jim Splaine,
NH State Representative,
Portsmouth & Newington
State Representative Jim Splaine (D-Portsmouth) sponsored the first law protecting
New Hampshire's lead-off Presidential Primary status in 1975. That law has
been the stumbling block for other states and national parties in efforts to
eliminate New Hampshire's role in the presidential election calendar. He is
sponsoring another update to the law this year which passed the House last
month and is currently awaiting action in the Senate.
(NH law mandates that the presidential primary be held "...on a Tuesday
selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding
the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election..."*)
In reacting to the vote this weekend by the Democratic National Party Rules
Committee, Splaine says, "The 2008 New Hampshire Presidential Primary
will be first before any other election, and our state law will continue to
protect our lead-off status, as it has for the past 30 years."
" In light of the action of the Democratic Rules Committee setting up more
election events before New Hampshire, it is even more timely for our Legislature
to
pass the bill I am sponsoring this year to allow the Secretary of State to
adjust the filing period for candidates running in 2008. That bill will even
further preserve our status."
Splaine said, "Unlike what some Democrats and Republicans from other states
are upset about, our primary does not exclude anyone from being fully involved
in the election process. There are already many events in other states leading
up to the NH Primary. Statewide or regional party conventions, conferences,
candidate debates, forums, endorsements, and straw polls can continue to take
place without triggering the NH Primary law. All those events include diverse
populations throughout our country. We don't need additional caucuses before
the New Hampshire Primary in order to be inclusive."
" With our current First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary Law that we
have had since 1975, along with the new proposed bill that will allow the Secretary
of State to accept earlier candidate filings for our next primary, we will
be sure New Hampshire has the first major event for 2008. It will allow him
to move our date ahead of any new caucuses if necessary. The national parties
and political activists in other states should accept New Hampshire's lead-off
status and stop trying to change the rules while the process is already underway."
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*Background Explanation: In 1999, the bill I sponsored, signed by then-Governor
Jeanne Shaheen, gave additional flexibility to the Secretary of State to
move the NH Presidential Primary date "...one week or more..." ahead
of any other state, thus allowing the trigger to be used to move ahead of
any caucus or other threat, if necessary. The original law I sponsored in
1975 provided for "...one week before..." For additional references,
see "Why New Hampshire?" written by Former Governor Hugh Gregg
and Secretary of State Bill Gardner.
From 1916 through the early 1970s, New Hampshire had a primary that came
first because no other state tried to set theirs ahead of ours. With the
passage
of my legislation in 1975, signed into law by then-Governor Meldrim Thompson,
we made it clear as part of our statutes that we would continue to be first,
but we did not take anything away from any other state by doing so.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Following is my testimony for the State Senate in favor of House Bill 1125.
The bill had a pubic hearing in the House Election Law Committee on January
12th, and I spoke on the House floor in favor of passage on February 15th.
It passed on that date and is currently referred to the Senate Internal Affairs
Committee.
Testimony In Favor Of
House Bill 1125
AN ACT relative to the filing period for candidates at the presidential primary.
The analysis of this legislation states that this bill permits the Secretary
of State to change the filing period for the NH Presidential Primary. That
it does, but it does much more.
Currently, the filing period for candidates running in the New Hampshire Presidential
Primary is set in law as between the first Monday in November, and the third
Friday of that month. That provision has served well through the years.
House Bill 1125 reads:
1 Presidential Nominations; Declaration of Candidacy; Filing Period. Amend
RSA 655:47, II to read as follows:
II. Declarations of candidacy shall be filed between the first Monday in November
and the third Friday in November, or during such other time period as the secretary
of state shall announce.
??or during such other time period as the secretary of state shall announce.?
is the new language to be added to current law.
First, a little history. New Hampshire has had a Presidential Primary that
has been first in this nation since 1916. But it wasn?t until 1975 that a law
was passed creating the ?New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary.?
Up until then, we had a Primary that came first by default - - no other state
had an earlier one. Since 1975, we have had in our statute a process, applied
and administered every four years by the Secretary of State, which keeps New
Hampshire first. In fact, without passage of that law in 1975, I and others
think we would have lost our lead-off status beginning in 1976.
The legislation in 1975 was necessary, and I think it has proved itself through
time. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, our nation and its national
politics was in upheaval. In 1968, New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans
experienced a very divisive election season, especially in the Democratic Party
where Senator Eugene McCarthy was contesting in New Hampshire against incumbent
President Lyndon Johnson. President Johnson wasn?t on the New Hampshire ballot
but the organizational structure of the NH Democratic Party was mostly supporting
his reelection through a write-in campaign. Senator McCarthy exceeded all expectations,
and we all know the results of that election on national politics.
In 1972, the Democrats continued to be a divided party, nationally and in-state.
Competing in New Hampshire were Senators Edmund Muskie of Maine and George
McGovern. McGovern did very well here against a ?neighbor? who had much of
the statewide Democratic establishment behind him.
With the continued national problems that Vietnam brought, plus the Watergate
situation in 1973 and 1974, many New Hampshire Democrats and Republicans wanted
to forego another divisive in-state battle, and there wasn?t the kind of unified
?let?s-be-first? attitude about our lead-off status. In fact, many New Hampshire
Democrats were hoping that Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts would run
in 1976, so there was considerable thrust for a regional primary that would
include at least Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Passage of the 1975 law, which overcame considerable debate that year (and
for which I was the only speaker in either the House or Senate public hearings),
came as a result of minds coming together toward the end of the Session, with
leadership in large part from then-Governor Meldrim Thomson and State Senator
Bob Monier. The unique ?one-call? part of the law, which assigns the final
determination of the date of the Primary to the Secretary of State alone and
by no one else (the Secretary is not required to consult with any party officials
about formally setting the date of the Primary, in or out of the state, or
with any other elected officials), has made it especially difficult for any
other state to piggyback on New Hampshire, or to pre-date us. That provision
came out of a long discussion I had with Mel Thomson, who thought that any
?committee? in the process would just bring politics into the setting of the
date. Most good ideas are collaborative, and Mel Thomson had a sharp political
mind, and though I disagreed with him on many issues I appreciated his input
on this matter.
What we do know is that since 1975, when I sponsored that first law setting
our Presidential Primary a week before other states, no other state and no
political party has been able to figure out how to either piggyback on us,
or pre-date us. When you think about it, if another state had beaten us to
the punch and put it in their law that they would be first by a week, it would
have been difficult for us to have the ?first? status. Add to that our tradition
of having a Primary that has come first since 1916, and it?s clear that New
Hampshire is now hard to beat.
We have retain our lead-off status through many years of threats, however,
not just because of our law but because of the way it is administered by the
Secretary of State. The law gives the Secretary the ?tools? to do the job -
- the hammer and the nails. But Bill Gardner, though the years, has used those
tools well.
My contention for decades has been that we have successfully maintained our
lead-off status against any and all challenges through the years because of
the unpredictability of the NH Presidential Primary date. No one knows for
sure when our date will be until a short time before it is set. In fact, the
Secretary of State CANNOT make an early agreement with anyone about when the
date will be - - it is his job, under the statute, to wait until all the other
states have set their dates for the election events. It doesn?t matter what
the national parties may say, the NH Primary is not a ?gift? from them. The
Secretary must wait until late in the Fall of the year preceding the selection
of President, then look at the schedule in all the other states, then apply
the law?s requirements.
Our state law mandates - - requires - - our Secretary of State to set the date
of the NH Presidential Primary ??7 days or more??* before any other similar
election. Originally, in 1975 I had written the bill to be one week ahead of
other similar elections, but in 1999 I sponsored a bill, signed by then-Governor
Jeanne Shaheen, to add the words ??or more??* thus giving the Secretary of
State full flexibility to set the date ahead of any other ?similar election?
OR any other election. For example, even if the only other primary in the nation
was held in June of a Presidential Election Year, and all other states had
caucuses or other events not called ?primaries,? the Secretary of State would
be empowered by our current state law to set the date of New Hampshire?s Primary
before any of those caucuses. That?s a subtlety in the current law sometimes
missed by the leaders and schedulers of the national parties and other states,
but it is an important part of our statute that guarantees our ?first? status.
What that mandate requiring the Secretary of State to set the date for New
Hampshire?s Primary ??7 days or more??* actually means is that the Secretary
has no choice but to wait until late Fall of 2007, in the case of the next
Presidential election, before setting the date.
It?s not what the national parties schedule as events that matters, it?s what
the other states do to their own election schedules that matter. The actual
wording of the New Hampshire First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary Law states
that: ?The presidential primary election shall be held on the second Tuesday
in March or on a Tuesday selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days
or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold
a similar election, whichever is earlier, of each year when a president of
the United States is to be elected or the year previous.?*
House Bill 1125 will allow the last element of flexibility for the Secretary
of State in the setting of the date of the Presidential Primary. By passing
this bill, we considerably enhance our First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary
Law and make it even more difficult for either of the national political parties,
or any of the other states, to reduce the importance, relevance, or status
of our lead-off position.
Through my years of studying how our New Hampshire Primary remains first, and
how other states could eventually end it, I?ve come to believe that there are
only three ways we can lose it:
(1) The Congress could act. It could create a national Presidential Election
system. However, the states? rights arguments that always arise when that is
considered will, I believe, always prevent that. Each Senator and Congressperson
comes from a state, and all politics is local, so they won?t take their state?s
rights away.
(2) Both major political parties could somehow team up and effectively boycott
New Hampshire, discouraging any candidates from running in our state. I don?t
ever see both parties teaming up because one or the other will always want
to be sure to win New Hampshire in November. Candidates come here not for convention
delegates, but for Wednesday?s headlines.
(3) Front-running and up-start candidates will just stop coming to New Hampshire.
This too, I don?t think will happen as long as we, as voters, remain as active
as we are in the process, and never give candidates of diverse political philosophies
reason not to run here. To continue to be relevant to the Presidential selection
process, however, we must maintain our interest. I think we will. AND, those
Wednesday headlines can be powerful political tools.
With that in mind, House Bill 1125 does more than just giving the Secretary
of State more flexibility. Essentially, this change will allow candidates to
avoid the pressures of other states, or the national parties, from boycotting
or not participating in New Hampshire, because well before the date of the
NH Primary is actually set, the Secretary of State can accept filings.
For example, instead of having to wait until the first Monday of November preceding
the year during which the President is elected, the Secretary of State can
set the filing date for, say, May 15th through September 15th. All the likely
Presidential candidates will have ample time to file in New Hampshire during
that time period, and by September 15th the ballot would be set, although the
firm date for the NH Primary may not have yet been announced by the Secretary
of State, following our statute. Essentially, candidates will have signed up
and made the obligation to run in New Hampshire, no matter when the date is.
Any party rule or ?pledge? in another state designed to encourage candidates
not to run in New Hampshire if the New Hampshire Primary date is set too early
or out of party ?windows? or ?schedules ? will effectively be negated by the
earlier filing commitment of the candidates.
It will also allow the Secretary of State to set a date for our Presidential
Primary, if absolutely necessary, prior to any caucus, including Iowa. That
is not something the Secretary of State would likely do lightly, and I cannot
speak to what the Secretary may or may not do, but if it is necessary in order
to preserve the tradition and role of our First-In-The-Nation Presidential
Primary, our law - -with this proposed legislation - - could allow a date for
our Primary to be set that could precede all caucuses, because candidates would
have already filed in New Hampshire and made that commitment to be on the ballot.
That realization should help discourage any of the political parties, or the
political activists of other states, from trying to create earlier and earlier
schedules or election events.
Unlike what some Democrats and Republicans from other states are upset about,
our primary does not exclude anyone from being fully involved in the election
process. There are already many events in other states leading up to the NH
Primary. Statewide or regional party conventions, conferences, candidate debates,
forums, endorsements, and straw polls can continue to take place without triggering
the NH Primary law. All those events include diverse populations throughout
our country. We don't need additional caucuses before the New Hampshire Primary
in order to be inclusive.
New Hampshire?s First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary has been a tradition
in this country since 1916. Until 1975 we had a Primary that came first by
default because no other state and none of the political parties tried to pre-date
our Primary. Since 1975, when we became the first state to put into our statute
our ?first? status, no other state and neither of the political parties has
been able to figure out a way around our state law. We saw the dilemma that
the National Democratic Commission on Scheduling found itself in this past
December, and we?ve seen the National Republican Party have to deal with this
dilemma before. While many of the political activists of both parties and most
of the other states outside of New Hampshire might not like the lead-off status
of New Hampshire, our 1975 law, updated in 1999, is very difficult to maneuver
around and negate.
House Bill 1125 will preserve our First-In-The-Nation status, as well as the
relevance and importance of our Primary, in 2008, 2012, 2016 and beyond. The
Secretary of State is joining me in support of this legislation.
Thank You,
Jim Splaine
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*The NH First-In-The-Nation Presidential Primary Law:
*TITLE LXIII - ELECTIONS
CHAPTER 653
ELECTION OF OFFICERS AND DELEGATES
Election Dates - Section 653:9
653:9 Presidential Primary Election. ? The presidential primary election
shall be held on the second Tuesday in March or on a Tuesday selected by
the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the
date on which any other state shall hold a similar election, whichever is
earlier, of each year when a president of the United States is to be elected
or the year previous. Said primary shall be held in connection with the regular
March town meeting or election or, if held on any other day, at a special
election called by the secretary of state for that purpose.
Source. 1979 (recodification of previous statutes), 436:1. 1995, 289:1, eff.
June 21, 1995. 1999, 161:2, eff. June 29, 1999.
House Bill 1125
2006 SESSION - 06-2942 - 03/10
AN ACT relative to the filing period for candidates at the presidential primary.
SPONSORS: Rep. Jim Splaine, Rockingham 16
REFERRED TO: Senate Committee On Internal Affairs
ANALYSIS
This bill permits the secretary of state to change the filing period for
candidates at the presidential primary.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears in brackets and struckthrough.
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in
regular type.
06-2942 - 03/10
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Six
AN ACT relative to the filing period for candidates at the presidential primary.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court
convened:
1 Presidential Nominations; Declaration of Candidacy; Filing Period. Amend
RSA 655:47, II to read as follows:
II. Declarations of candidacy shall be filed between the first Monday in November
and the third Friday in November, or during such other time period as the secretary
of state shall announce.
2 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
