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November 27, 1998/ 8 Kislev 5759, Vol. 51, No. 10
Super Saturday? ADL fights Western primary planStaff and wire reportsThe Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix was gearing up this week to join forces with other ADL offices and Jewish organizations to fight a plan for a Western states' primary - on a Saturday.Meeting in Salt Lake City last week, the Western Presidential Primary Task Force, made up of political leaders from the eight Rocky Mountain states, devised a plan for a proposed Western Presidential Primary. The proposed combined primary, which still needs the blessing of participating state legislatures to become reality in 2000, is intended to make the West a steppingstone to the White House. "They (candidates for president) fly over us to California and look down upon us," Cecil Andrus, former Democratic governor of Idaho, grumbled to the task force. Representatives from Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah agreed that they are tired of being ignored. But the idea has its detractors. Some complain about the cost. And Jewish people don't like the idea of a Saturday primary, since Saturday is the Sabbath for Jews, as well as for Seventh Day Adventists and some other Christians. "It's really disenfranchising people of (those) religions," said Joel Breshin, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in Phoenix. "This is going to be a problem." The first Western states' combined primary currently is planned for Saturday, March 11, 2000. The eight-state bloc could deliver 70 more Republican delegates and 111 fewer Democratic delegates than California. Advertising in the region is also 37 percent cheaper than on the West Coast, according to a study by the Center for the New West, a Denver-based think tank. The Associated Press and Jewish News Associate Editor Anne Brady contributed to this report. |
