[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 28 (Tuesday, March 5, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1522-S1524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GORTON (for himself and Mr. Lieberman):
  S. 1589. A bill to provide for a rotating schedule for regional 
primaries for Presidential elections, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Rules and Administration.


                  the presidential primary act of 1996

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, reacting to a proposal which I am about to 
introduce in bill form, a columnist and cartoonist on the Seattle Post 
Intelligencer wrote, in yesterday's edition of that newspaper:

       My English friend, Carolyn, having recently arrived in the 
     United States from London, asked me to explain how Americans 
     decide who will be their President.
       We were at a social occasion just before I headed up to New 
     Hampshire to witness the process firsthand. The longer I 
     rambled on, detailing the haphazard series of primaries and 
     caucuses, the influence of media expectations and money, the 
     nearly endless campaigns that begin almost as soon as the 
     winner of the previous round has been inaugurated, the more I 
     thought how bizarre it must sound to a person from another 
     country. . .
       To the extent that the word ``system'' implies rationality 
     and forethought, we really do not have a system for choosing 
     nominees for president of the United States.

  This bill also reflects a cartoon that this same individual had in 
the newspaper about 3 or 4 weeks ago. In that cartoon, several of the 
Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander 
Hamilton are ``Brainstorming at the Constitutional Convention.'' Ben 
Franklin turns to his colleagues in jest and rattles off an idea for a 
Presidential election system, with the following statement:

       ``The President shall be chosen from among those persons 
     who can hone complex ideas into simplistic sound bites, 
     defame the character of their opponents, hide their own 
     blemishes from an intrusive swarming press corps and''--get 
     this!--``win the most votes from a tiny number of citizens in 
     a remote corner of New England!"

  While this was simply a newspaper cartoon figure, it nonetheless 
comes all too close to describing the way in which we pick nominees for 
President of the United States at the present time.
  A relatively small handful of voters in two or three States are wooed 
for more than a year while the rest of the country is ignored, and the 
influence of their votes, or even their sound bites on radio and on 
television, has a disproportionate impact on the way in which we 
nominate our Presidents. At the same time, it means that the candidates 
must have very narrow platforms, appealing to this not highly 
representative group of American citizens.
  It also has the paradox, or had the paradox this year, of requiring 
major candidates to ignore States that somehow or another are deemed to 
be less influential. We saw an example this year when most of the 
candidates skipped primaries and caucuses in Louisiana and Delaware for 
fear of upsetting States that, for an extended period of time, had gone 
earlier than they did.
  This is absolutely ridiculous, and we need a new and better system. 
We need a system that empowers and enfranchises all of the citizens of 
the United States equally; that treats the nominating process in both 
parties as being vitally important to the future of democratic 
institutions in the United States; that does so fairly; that causes the 
campaigns to speak about major national and regional issues on a much 
broader focus than they have at the present time. So, this is the time, 
it seems to me, when all of this is green in our memories, that we 
should begin the process toward a new system.
  As a consequence, the bill that I am introducing today, together with 
my distinguished friend and colleague, the junior Senator from 
Connecticut [Mr. Lieberman], creates a simple system of regional 
primaries. There will be four

[[Page S1523]]

regions, each including either 12 or 13 States, all required to hold 
primaries respectively on the first Tuesday in March--incidentally, 
today--the first Tuesday in April, and in May, and then in June, with 
the regions rotating first position, second position, third position, 
fourth position over four cycles, or 16 years. So the people in each 
region would go first once every four Presidential elections and last 
every fourth Presidential election.

  The delegates would be bound for at least two ballots on the vote for 
the candidate to carry their State, or their congressional district, 
and leave the rules as to how the votes are divided to be determined by 
each individual State.
  So the people of each State will have an equal opportunity to 
participate in and to influence the nomination in that process. Instead 
of 4 or 5 percent of the people of the United States having a 
disproportionate impact on the outcome, all of the people of the United 
States will have an equal opportunity, and, equally significant, the 
candidates for President will have had the campaign in all corners of 
the United States and in every State to be affected.
  I believe, Mr. President, it will probably give a slightly greater 
advantage to those candidates who are not independently wealthy or do 
not have huge campaign chests because, with 12 or 13 primaries going on 
at the same time, they could attempt to establish a niche in one or two 
or three of those States and become well known, win one or two, and be 
major candidates by the time the second round comes around.
  Not at all incidentally, Mr. President, it would place the nomination 
process a little bit closer to the national convention, and that 
perhaps would slightly shorten the entire process.
  I think, in summary, Mr. President, that we should do everything we 
possibly can to improve the nomination system for President and see to 
it that all of our people have equal opportunity to participate.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a copy of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 1589

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Presidential Primary Act of 
     1996''.

     SEC. 2. DEFINITION.

       For purposes of this Act--
       (1) the term ``election year'' means a year during which a 
     Presidential election is to be held;
       (2) the term ``national committee'' means the organization 
     which, by virtue of the bylaws of a political party, is 
     responsible for the day-to-day operation of such political 
     party at the national level, as determined by the Federal 
     Election Commission;
       (3) the term ``political party'' means an association, 
     committee, or organization which--
       (A) nominates a candidate for election to any Federal 
     office whose name appears on the election ballot as the 
     candidate of such association, committee, or organization; 
     and
       (B) won electoral votes in the preceding Presidential 
     election;
       (4) the term ``primary'' means a primary election held for 
     the selection of delegates to a national Presidential 
     nominating convention of a political party, but does not 
     include a caucus, convention, or other indirect means of 
     selection; and
       (5) the term ``State committee'' means the organization 
     which, by virtue of the bylaws of a political party, is 
     responsible for the day-to-day operation of such political 
     party at the State level, as determined by the Federal 
     Election Commission.

     SEC. 3. SCHEDULE.

       (a) Schedule.--
       (1) First election cycle.--In the first election year after 
     the date of enactment of this Act, each State shall hold a 
     primary in accordance with this Act, according to the 
     following schedule:
       (A) Region i.--Each State in Region I shall hold its 
     primary on the first Tuesday in March.
       (B) Region ii.--Each State in Region II shall hold its 
     primary on the first Tuesday in April.
       (C) Region iii.--Each State in Region III shall hold its 
     primary on the first Tuesday in May.
       (D) Region iv.--Each State in Region IV shall hold its 
     primary on the first Tuesday in June.
       (2) Subsequent election cycles.--
       (A) General rule.--Except as provided in subparagraph (B), 
     in the second and each subsequent election year after the 
     date of enactment of this Act, each State in each region 
     shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday of the month 
     following the month in which it held its primary in the 
     preceding election year.
       (B) Limitation.--If the States in a region were required to 
     hold their primaries not earlier than the first Tuesday in 
     June of the preceding year, such States shall hold their 
     primaries on the first Tuesday in March of the succeeding 
     election year.
       (b) Regions.--For purposes of subsection (a):
       (1) Region i.--Region I shall be comprised of the 
     following:
       (A) Connecticut.
       (B) Delaware.
       (C) District of Columbia.
       (D) Maine.
       (E) Maryland.
       (F) Massachusetts.
       (G) New Hampshire.
       (H) New Jersey.
       (I) New York.
       (J) Pennsylvania.
       (K) Rhode Island.
       (L) Vermont.
       (M) West Virginia.
       (2) Region ii.--Region II shall be comprised of the 
     following:
       (A) Alabama.
       (B) Arkansas.
       (C) Florida.
       (D) Georgia.
       (E) Kentucky.
       (F) Louisiana.
       (G) Mississippi.
       (H) North Carolina.
       (I) Oklahoma.
       (J) South Carolina.
       (K) Tennessee.
       (L) Texas.
       (M) Virginia.
       (3) Region iii.--Region III shall be comprised of the 
     following:
       (A) Illinois.
       (B) Indiana.
       (C) Iowa.
       (D) Kansas.
       (E) Michigan.
       (F) Minnesota.
       (G) Missouri.
       (H) Nebraska.
       (I) North Dakota.
       (J) Ohio.
       (K) South Dakota.
       (L) Wisconsin.
       (4) Region iv.--Region IV shall be comprised of the 
     following:
       (A) Alaska.
       (B) Arizona.
       (C) California.
       (D) Colorado.
       (E) Hawaii.
       (F) Idaho.
       (G) Montana.
       (H) Nevada.
       (I) New Mexico.
       (J) Oregon.
       (K) Utah.
       (L) Washington.
       (M) Wyoming.
       (5) Territories.--The national committees shall jointly 
     determine the region of each territory of the United States.

     SEC. 4. QUALIFICATION FOR BALLOT.

       (a) Certification by Federal Election Commission.--The 
     Federal Election Commission shall certify to the States in 
     the relevant region the names of all seriously considered 
     candidates of each party--
       (1) for the first primary in the election year, not later 
     than 6 weeks before such primary; and
       (2) in the subsequent primaries in the election year, not 
     later than 1 week after the preceding primary in that 
     election year.
       (b) State Primary Ballots.--Each State shall include on its 
     primary ballot--
       (1) the names certified by the Federal Election Commission; 
     and
       (2) any other names determined by the appropriate State 
     committee.

     SEC. 5. VOTING AT NATIONAL PARTY CONVENTIONS BY STATE 
                   DELEGATES.

       (a) In General.--Each State committee shall establish a 
     procedure for the apportionment of delegates to the national 
     Presidential nominating convention of each political party 
     based on 1 of the following models:
       (1) Winner-take-all.--A binding, winner-take-all system in 
     which the results of the primary bind each member of the 
     State delegation or Congressional district delegation (or 
     combination thereof) to the national convention to cast his 
     or her vote for the primary winner in the State.
       (2) Proportionate preference.--A binding proportionate 
     representation system in which the results of the State 
     primary are used to allocate members of the State delegation 
     or Congressional district delegation (or combination thereof) 
     to the national convention to Presidential candidates based 
     on the proportion of the vote for some or all of the 
     candidates received in the primary in the State.
       (b) Selection of Delegates.--
       (1) Submission of names.--Not later than the date on which 
     a candidate is certified on the ballot for a State, such 
     candidate shall submit to the State committee, in priority 
     order, a list of names of individuals proposed by the 
     candidate to serve as delegates for such candidate.
       (2) Selection.--Delegates apportioned to represent a 
     candidate pursuant to the procedure established under 
     subsection (a) shall be selected according to the list 
     submitted by the candidate pursuant to paragraph (1).

[[Page S1524]]

       (c) Voting at the National Conventions.--Each delegate to a 
     national convention who is required to vote for the winner of 
     the State primary under the system established under 
     subsection (a) shall so vote for at least 2 ballots at the 
     national convention, unless released by the winner of the 
     State primary to which such delegate's vote is pledged.

     SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

       This Act shall apply to the primaries in the year 2000 and 
     in each election year thereafter.
                                 ______