Democrats Move to Fix Primary Scramble

By Kisten Wyatt
Associated Press
23 August 2008

Democrats moved Saturday to change the way they nominate presidential candidates and avoid a repeat of this year's primary scramble.
But they shied away from substantive debate such as whether to take away Iowa and New Hampshire's jealously guarded status as the nation's first vetting grounds for presidential candidates.

As a rules panel within the Democratic National Convention Committee voted unanimously Saturday to start talking about how to avoid a repeat of this year's jammed up primary schedule, party leaders sought to put off substantive — and divisive — talk about how to do that until after this is year's campaign.

"No state was left behind in the primaries," Democratic Chairman Howard Dean told the rules panel, Dean said earlier this month that the party needed to review its primary and caucus rules and reduce the number of superdelegates.

There appears to be broad consensus among Democrats that the nomination process needs to be reformed in light of this year's seismic battle between Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and nominee-to-be Barack Obama.

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