Presidential Primary Politics

The Hill is reporting that a group of three US Senators have drafted a bill that would change the way Presidential primaries are scheduled. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are proposing to divide the country into four regions, with the first region voting in March, the second in April, the third in June, and the fourth in July.

The Regional Presidential Primary and Caucus Act, which would take effect in the 2012 elections, is a result of this year’s rush by states to the front of the line, with big states like California, New York and New Jersey moving to Feb. 5 and Florida jumping to Jan. 29.

The proposal calls for a rotating schedule of the four regions, while still protecting the “traditional” first states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

The states would be divided into the East (Region I), South (II), Midwest (III) and West (IV) regions.

A lottery would be held to determine which region votes first on the first Tuesday or within six days of the first Tuesday in March. The other regions would follow in numerical order in April, May and June. Whichever region goes first in 2012 would go to the back of the line in 2016.

I would definitely support a more staggered primary season. In addition, I think this proposal would work well with public financing of the presidential election. A longer primary campaign season with public financing would allow the candidates to actually meet the people, rather than focus so much of their time on fundraising. It would also allow each region of the country to have a say in the primary process.

All in all, I think this proposal makes sense.

See the Country in Your New John Deere

This will be a brief entry because I will let the article do most of the talking. If you have a free minute, check out this story from the Des Moines Register about a man driving his riding lawn mower from Alaska to Virginia.

At speeds of 15 to 20 miles an hour, Woods said he has to refill his gas tank every five miles. The mower's seat is held together with duct tape and his trailer is made out of a modified shopping cart.

Woods said he has been through some bad weather. He drove through Montana during the winter, and hit tornadoes and hail in Nebraska. Through it all Woods said the weather never bothers him.

This guy's story is amazing. Not only is he making his way on the grand daddy of all road trips, but he managed to find enough time to get his wife pregnant along the way. Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause for a real American.

Urban Sociology: A View From the Hot Dog Cart

We've all heard it said that we are what we eat, and this article in the New York Times gives credibility to that old saw. The article traces the decline of the hot dog and the rise of the halal platter as the preferred meal of choice offered by street vendors in New York City.

“The hot dog now is for tourists,” said a rueful Chafik el-Mokhtar, office manager at 2M Friend Corporation, a hot-dog cart garage and supply store on West 47th Street near 11th Avenue.

“The people usually go for chicken and rice because it’s good for hunger,” he added wistfully.

On some corners of Manhattan, halal carts outnumber hot-dog vendors by as much as three to one. Mr. Abouelenein’s cart, named 53rd and 6th, after the Midtown corner on which it sits, stays open from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m., feeding throngs of clubbers, foodies and cabbies. Its success has been such that Mr. Abouelenein recently opened a new cart across the street, supplanting — yes — a hot-dog stand.

It turns out that this shift in demand and food consumption is a result of the immigration patterns and demographic trends in New York. In short, as the ethnic makeup of New York changes, so do the food preferences and available culinary options.

The most obvious explanation for its popularity is that the city is home to many more Muslim immigrants than in the past.

Arthur Schwartz, a New York food historian who runs the Web site foodmaven.com, also suggests that a particular kind of customer has been instrumental to the success of halal carts. “You can always tell who the new immigrant group is by the cabdrivers,” Mr. Schwartz said. “Most of the cabdrivers are now Bangladeshi, and the car service drivers are Egyptian. And they are good customers for the carts.”

The rise of halal as the top selling menu item from street vendors in New York City is a good example of why the notion of cultural assimilation that is being advanced in the ongoing immigration debate is such a red herring. Assimilation would keep all New Yorkers eating hot dogs. But free market conditions allow New Yorkers to freely choose among competing food options, with little or no regard given to the cultural identity of the food.

People eat what they like and, as such, expose the proponents of assimilation to be anti-choice and anti-free markets. It seems to me that assimilation is about as un-American as you can get.

New York Politics: The Egos Have Landed

New York is nicknamed the Empire State, although with population growth well below the national average, and with a decaying Upstate economy, one questions the applicability of the nickname. New York is a predominantly Democratic state (with certain areas of Upstate and Long Island voting Republican) and there is no shortage of Democratic politicians stepping over each other to be top dog: Spitzer, Cuomo, Silver, Schumer, Clinton (and don't forget Hevesi before he resigned from office).

The recent scandal involving the Spitzer administration is a perfect example of this clash among Democrats. The New York Times reports this morning on the competing egos, ambitions, and agendas of Governor Spitzer and Attorney General Cuomo.

Yet there is also a sense among some political analysts that Mr. Cuomo has emerged with his reputation enhanced and his power increased because both the governor and state Republicans have embraced the report’s findings.

Henry J. Stern, for example, the longtime parks commissioner who founded the good-government group New York Civic, said: “If anyone thought six months ago which one would be incompetent, they thought Cuomo would be the jerk and Spitzer would be the cool guy. But that appears not to be the case.”

When state politics becomes dominated by one party, don't think for a moment that back biting and political warfare come to an end. The Republicans hold a razor thin majority in the State Senate, and when the Democrats capture control in a few more years, the intra-party conflicts will only increase with the addition of another power player, a Democratic Senate Majority Leader.

For now, I'll just sit back and watch and wait for the knives to come out.

So When Does "Day One" Begin?

The big news in New York politics this week is the scandal involving the Spitzer Administration and the efforts of certain Spitzer aides to attack and discredit State Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. Before being elected governor, Eliot Spitzer was the New York State Attorney General, and his campaign slogan was "Everything changes on day one."

Governor Spitzer's administration is the target of an investigation by current Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and it is likely that the State Senate will be launching its own investigation. As the New York Times reports, Spitzers old enemies on Wall Street are loving every minute of it.

The New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, found this week that Mr. Spitzer’s aides had used the State Police to gather embarrassing information about a political opponent, Joseph L. Bruno, to share with the press, and then lied about why the information was collected. Since the report, more than one old antagonist has allowed himself an I-told-you-so moment.

“Mr. Spitzer has been manipulating the press and the law to disparage decent people for years, and it’s about time that he’s been held accountable,” said Kenneth G. Langone, a billionaire founder of Home Depot whom Mr. Spitzer accused of misleading fellow Stock Exchange members about the exchange’s rich compensation.

Governor Spitzer has had some growing pains since taking office in January, including an ongoing fued with Senator Bruno. This latest scandal takes some of the shine off the new Spitzer Administration and does the unthinkable -- it makes Joe Bruno look like the victim of partisan dirty tricks.

If the public comes to see the Republican Senate as a necessary check on the Spitzer Administration, Spitzer's dream of a Democratic Senate could be slipping away.