States delaying primaries due to budgets

Missouri and Kansas are two of the states noted today as having budget issues big enough that representatives are proposing delaying election primaries next year, in order to save money:

Some states consider cutting 2012 primaries to save money

The biggest state considering a delay is California, where a bill has unanimously passed a State Assembly committee that would move the presidential primary from February to June, to coincide with its state and local primary.

Legislators in Missouri and Alabama have also proposed bills shifting their presidential primaries to June, combining them with state primaries. Washington and Kansas are considering skipping the presidential primaries altogether, allowing parties to pick candidates through caucuses. The idea of skipping the primary also came up during a Massachusetts budget hearing.

And if it's in order to save money and it truly will, great, more power to them.

But here's the bad part:

None of this will likely have much effect on the Democratic presidential candidate, expected to be President Barack Obama.

But it could cause trouble for moderate Republicans, by allowing a protracted battle and giving conservatives a louder voice, according to political analysts.

The last thing any electorate needs, anywhere, this country or any other, is for the extremists to get bigger voices.  The far fringes, Left or Right, who get more air time or voice in a society and an electorate doesn't ultimately help the greater group of people they're supposed to be serving of helping.  Fox "News" and Air America can't be the two organizations most people get their news and commentary from or you just end up being two groups who fight each other, instead of trying to cooperate for the overall betterment of the society.

This doesn't sound like it's going to lead anywhere good.

Link to original article:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/pl_nm/us_primaries