With no pomp and little circumstance, primary season comes to an end

By Ian Christopher McCaleb/CNN

June 5, 2000
Web posted at: 2:14 p.m. EDT (1814 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The six-month-long 2000 presidential primary season goes out with a whimper Tuesday, three-full months after the most viable Democratic and Republican contests came to an abrupt, virtual end.

Voters aligned with both major parties have been invited to attend primary voting events in five states on Tuesday: Alabama, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

How many of them will actually accept those invitations and turn up to vote, however, will likely rest on the significance of other races -- such as local contests, or those for the U.S. House and Senate -- rather than the presidential contest.

With Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore having satcheled the number of delegates needed to secure their parties' nominations back in the first weeks of March, many voters have opted to keep themselves otherwise occupied through the remainder of the primary season. Turnout rates have been low, and many voters nationwide have expressed dismay that their mid- and late-season votes have had little to no effect on the outcome of the race for the White House.

"It is traditionally the presidential contest that draws people to the polls, whether it's a primary or a general election," F. Chris Garcia, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico, told the Associated Press.

Comments from many potential voters in each of these six states would seem to bear out that sentiment, and movements are already underway within a number of state election commissions and inside both major party operations to overhaul the primary season for 2004 presidential campaign.

Among the proposals on the table in some areas is a series of national primaries, perhaps broken up by region. For example, four regions yet to be determined -- though the 48 contiguous states could be separated into East, South, Midwest and West sections -- could each hold primaries on four consecutive Tuesdays, giving voters nationwide more of a sense of full participation.

"We could have had a very timely impact on the presidential race if this primary had been in February or early March," said New Mexico Democrat Stephen Flance, who would have cast his vote for former New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, had Bradley not abandoned his contest against Gore after the pivotal March 7 Super Tuesday 'national' primary. "But once again, we find ourselves behind the curve and out of the action."

An end to the current system?

It is difficult to predict how all of the post-2000 primary machinations will shake out. It is clear that a good number of the voting population isn't pleased with the way things are now. After Super Tuesday, when Bradley dropped out and Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain suspended his campaign after weeks of giving Bush fits, the presidential race all but went underground.

Media coverage of the primaries held from April to late May was cut back drastically, and even the main party organizations and campaign staffs for Bush and Gore shifted their gaze toward fund-raising efforts, the conventions, and the November general election. Most of the states holding party primaries late in the season were not visited by either Bush or Gore, and that blanket disinterest has resulted in pitifully low turnout rates.

While ideas such as the previously mentioned "regional" system have supporters in some circles, the Republican and Democratic Parties aren't crazy about the notion that the whole thing could be over and done with in the space of four to six weeks.

The Republicans have suggested a system that would see smaller states casting some of the first votes in a presidential primary year, with larger and larger states following suit on subsequent Tuesdays.

Iowa and New Hampshire would be allowed to retain their status as first-in-the-nation caucus and primary states respectively, with votes in smaller states such as Delaware, Vermont and others to follow, perhaps in mid-February.

The GOP plan, which will have to be argued at the party convention in Philadelphia later this summer, is intended to keep larger states, such as New York, Texas and California -- whose massive delegate counts, tabulated early in the process, could well determine the outcome of a party race -- voting at the end of the season.

Larger state delegations are expected to argue against the plan in Philadelphia.

The Democrats, meanwhile, seem somewhat content with the current system, though they say they would like to work with the Republicans to keep some states from attempting to "leapfrog" Iowa and New Hampshire early in the year in an effort to gain "first in the nation" status.

Early on in 2000, Louisiana Republicans attempted to jump ahead of Iowa by scheduling their state party caucuses for January. The idea was scuttled at the last minute, when enthusiasm for an early vote didn't justify the effort needed to make an early primary a reality.

Tuesday's contests

Despite the disappointment felt by many at the fizzled presidential primary cycle, there are some contests worth watching on Tuesday -- most notably the race for the U.S. Senate in the Garden State.

On the ticket for the Democrats in New Jersey's party primary for the Senate seat of retiring Democrat Frank Lautenberg is former Gov. Jim Florio, and Wall Street whiz Jon Corzine.

This early season face-off for the right to represent New Jersey in the Senate has already turned into an all-out war. Corzine, who hasn't a shred of political experience, is spending some $35 million of his own money on his primary effort, much of that money going into attack ads against Florio's record as governor.

Corzine's television spots claim Florio was responsible for massive increases in state taxes, 280,000 lost jobs, and 200,000 state residents who could not afford health insurance.

Florio, has hit back, and the two have parried over the state's airwaves for months, with some of Florio's ads going so far as to allege that the Corzine organization hired a private detective to dig up dirt on the former state executive.

The state's major newspapers have fallen in behind Florio, but Corzine boasts the backing of the New Jersey Democratic Party.

A recent Quinnipiac College Poll shows Corzine with a commanding lead, despite the accusations of unseemly campaign tactics. The poll also indicates that most potential voters have never heard of any of the four candidates running for the GOP nomination, which will also be decided Tuesday in a party primary.

That fact doesn't bother the state GOP establishment one bit. The Republicans are content to just sit back and watch, hoping that both Democrats wear out their welcome with the voting public.