What Does California's Early Primary Mean For YDs?

It's official - California has moved its primary back to February 5 in an attempt to regain some influence in choosing the nominees.

As a longtime advocate of The American Plan For Presidential Primaries, I'm skeptical that this move will really increase California's clout. California won't be alone in moving our primary; it seems like every state is jumping up to February to get a piece of the action next year. That makes Iowa and New Hampshire *more* important, not less. And this insanely front-loaded schedule just favors the usual big-money, high name ID candidates. The best we can hope for is that everyone will be so disgusted with the "Me-first!" game this year that they'll support wholesale change in 2012.

That being said, there's no reason why Young Democrats shouldn't take advantage of California's jump in '08. Increased attention on California means more young voters will feel like they have a say in the process. We need to do everything possible to capture those young voters and introduce them to Democratic club activities while we have their attention. That means stepping up our mixer events, club visibility, and - everyone's favorite - voter registration drives. I'm proud to say that the '04 election got me involved in Young Democratic politics. It could be that our future club President is out there right now, eager to get involved but unaware of SFVYD. Our job in the next year will be to catch potential club members and keep them involved in years to come.