Democrats give states primary incentives

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - States willing to hold back in the rush to move up presidential nominating contests would be rewarded with extra delegates to the Democratic National Convention under a proposal being presented to party leaders.

The plan is an attempt to avoid a free-for-all in the Democratic presidential race, with states such as California and Michigan threatening to move up their nominating dates to get more attention and favor from national leaders.

States that have traditionally come late in the process and gotten little attention in the process would get a "small bonus" of delegates to the 2008 convention if they stay put. States willing to move their events later in the year would get "significant bonuses." The party wouldn't say how many delegates such states would get.

No state would lose delegates under the plan if they follow DNC rules.

The plan is intended to address concerns about "front-loading" in the primary process, DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney said.

It's unclear how much of an incentive extra delegates would be to a state, considering there hasn't been a convention fight over a nominee decided by delegates in decades.

The proposal was developed by a working group and is being presented Saturday to the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee. If approved by the committee, it would go before the entire Democratic National Committee during its winter meeting in February.

Each state nominates a presidential candidate through one of two processes — a primary is run by the state and the date is set by state law and may be limited to registered Democrats or open to all voters. A caucus is run by the state Democratic party, which also chooses the date, funds the contest and can limit voting to party members.

Iowa has traditionally held the first caucus and New Hampshire the first primary. But this year, under protests from party activists across the country who have long said the largely white states do not reflect the country's population, the party agreed to let Nevada and South Carolina also hold contests in January.

The DNC rules let all other states set their primary and caucus dates any time between February and June 2008. Any state that holds a nominating contest earlier risks having the party refuse to seat its delegates at the national convention.

The Rules and Bylaws Committee doesn't plan to discuss any further changes to the calendar rules — only the incentive program — Saturday.

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