It's no secret that states with early primaries or caucuses have had an outsized influence on the outcome of the nomination. Cutting to the front of the calendar is such a boon, particularly given the economic boost that campaigns deliver, that states are willing to sacrifice their influence at the convention in order to hold their contests early. After weighing the benefits, for example, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida all chose to violate Republican National Committee rules and hold their primaries earlier than allowed, thus sacrificing half their delegates at the convention.
Romney in Iowa (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
There are many reasons why this is a broken system. Without sufficient penalties for states jumping the gun, the next cycle's primaries could easily spill into December of 2015, while states that play by the rules will remain insignificant. So here at the Signal, we're proposing a simple way to fix this process, while preserving a staggered order of contests: Treat the nomination like a market, and let states bid on how early they want to go.
The rules are simple: The RNC sets the dates of the primaries ahead of time, with a limited number of coveted early contests. To determine the order, every state says what percent of its delegates it is willing to give up in order to go first. Whichever state is willing to sacrifice the highest proportion wins the first slot. The remaining primary slots would be allocated in much the same way. The states next say what percent of delegates they're willing to forgo to be second in line to vote--presumably less than they would pay to go first, but still a substantial amount. Whoever bids the most for second position wins it, and so on. It's a classic economics problem. We have a commodity--early primaries--that's in short supply and high demand. The delegate market determines how precious those slots are.
