The Missouri House during the short first day to its special session today, introduced a bill to move the Show-Me state presidential primary from the first Tuesday after the first Monday in February to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March.
Rep. Tony Dugger (R-144th, Hartville),
as he did back in February, introduced the bill.
HB 3 has the same sole purpose that its regular session House predecessor (
HB 503) had: to move the presidential primary back to March. That bill passed the House but got stuck in the state Senate, as another broader elections bill was considered there and later passed by both chambers. That broader elections bill (
SB 282) was later vetoed by Governor Nixon (D), laying the groundwork for the special session bill.
The expectation -- since a bill to move the primary to March among other elections matters already passed both legislative chambers -- is that this bill will pass and Missouri will move back to March 6 on the calendar.
NOTE: Keep in mind also, that the legislature has a veto session scheduled for next week and legislative Republicans -- the majority in both houses -- could opt to override the gubernatorial veto of SB 282 with the help of four House Democrats.
If a so-called dead zone is established in February, could the RNC try to talk Minnesota Republicans into re-scheduling their primary for Feb 14 or 21? I'm not necessarily talking about pressuring Minnesota Republicans to change. They could point out that they would have the same order as they have now but it
ReplyDeletewould allow Florida to move into February and give Iowa, NH, SC and Nevada the entire month of January to maneuver.