Democrats to press: Pay up or stay away

As easy as it is to beat up on New Hampshire for so zealously protecting it's first-in-the-nation primary status, remember that Granite Staters were the only ones who saw the problems that would result from the DNC trying to use to cudgel to dictate its primary calendar. As Florida reporters lately have had to write campaign donation checks to hear Democratic presidential contenders in Florida -  like Bill Richardson in Coral Gables yesterday and Bill Clinton last week - consider the prescience of former Ambassador Terry Shumaker of New Hampshire. As a member of the DNC primary study commission that came up with the primary rules, he voted against them, and in a 2006 column predicted consequences that may have sounded absurd at the time:

"I wonder what the founding fathers, who risked their lives and honor for our freedoms, would think of senators and governors aspiring to be president being disciplined by an unelected committee of Washington insiders for making public appearances or speaking to the press."

Comments

Time for a national primary. Or something along those lines. 2007 will be the year that proves how silly our presidential primary system really is.

I love it. Charging reporters to enter fundraisers? How terrible!

Reporters are 95% Dem anyway; contributing to Democratic candiadtes shouldn't be too painful for them.

[mike]

12:41, you are correct. This gives them cover now when they donate to democratic candidates. They can now claim that they only donated so they could get the interview.

Nice photo of Joe Garcia and Bill Richardson.

you are correct, I am OUTRAGED!

Corporations cannot contribute to federal candidates, so are the reporters paying up out of their own pockets?

And are these reporters listing their own names as contributors?

Won't that create a conflict of interest?