Political parties fail to choose primary date

OLYMPIA -- State Republican and Democratic party officials and legislators deadlocked Friday in trying to agree on an early date for Washington's 2008 presidential primary -- even though both parties intend, at least unofficially, to ignore its results.

With four party leaders and lawmakers from each party on a nine-member committee chaired by Secretary of State Sam Reed, who is a Republican, neither side could muster the six votes needed to set a date for the event.

While officials of both parties say they plan to select all of the state's presidential nominating-convention delegates in caucuses, not in the primary, neither party's decision is final.

And leaders of both parties acknowledged that a number of grass-roots members as well as lawmakers, especially those in the GOP, want some or all delegates chosen in the primary.

"I think we (Republican lawmakers) want to have a primary and be players," said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

Reed wants to move the primary to Feb. 5, the date of a megaprimary in which more than 20 states -- including all of the nation's largest -- might take part. Any later, he said, would diminish the state's influence in the process. The statutory date for the primary is May 27, but the date-selection committee has the power to change it.

Reed argued that it would bring the candidates to Washington to address the state's issues such as world trade even if no delegates are chosen in the primary. He noted that in 2000, when the Democrats chose delegates in caucuses, Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley both spent time campaigning in the state.

Reed, the state's chief elections officer, said he plans to talk to his Idaho and Oregon counterparts about the possibility of a Northwest primary in all three states on the same date. Bills in the Idaho and Oregon legislatures would add those states to the Feb. 5 stampede.

The four Democrats proposed a March 18 Washington primary, a motion rejected on a 4-5 vote. The Republicans called for a Feb. 5 primary, which also failed, on a 5-4 vote.

Reed said he probably will reconvene the committee in May, after the state Democratic Central Committee meets April 28 to ratify delegate-selection rules for the party's 2008 presidential nominating convention.

"It's frustrating," he said after the meeting, because he had hoped committee members "would rise above partisan politics. But the politics of this situation are still pretty raw."

The Democratic Party's proposed delegate-selection rules call for the delegates to be chosen at caucuses as the party always has done, this time on Feb. 9, the Saturday after the giant, multistate primary.

Todd Nichols, representing the Democratic Party on the date-selection committee, said Democrats don't want a state primary just four days before its caucuses "because we are very concerned about confusion and conflict" in having the primary in the same week as the caucuses.

In the past, Republicans have allocated some of their delegates to candidates in the presidential primary but most of them in caucuses. But this week, party Chairman Luke Esser said, the state GOP executive board voted overwhelmingly to endorse choosing delegates entirely by caucus. The party central committee will make the final decision in June.