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December 4, 1998/ 15 Kislev 5759, Vol. 51, No. 11
Super Saturday plan
Hull concerned about proposed Sabbath primary
ANNE BRADY
Associate Editor
Arizona Gov. Jane Hull has added her voice to those expressing concern about plans for a joint Western states' presidential primary on a Saturday, beginning on March 11, 2000, because Saturday is the Sabbath for Jews, Seventh Day Adventists and some others.
George Weisz, executive assistant to the governor, said the governor planned to share her concerns with fellow governors from Western states when they gathered in Phoenix late this week for the Western Governors Association winter meeting, Dec. 3-6.
"The purpose of (the primary) is to include more people in the electoral process, not to exclude people," noted Weisz.
The directors of the Anti-Defamation League offices in the eight Rocky Mountain states involved were planning a conference call Dec. 3 to discuss strategy for efforts to get the date changed, according to Joel Breshin, regional ADL director in Arizona. No information from that strategy session was available at press time.
Although the proposed Western Presidential Primary would be the first time that voters in eight Western states would go to the polls together to vote for their choices for presidential party candidates, it would not be the first time that a presidential primary balloting took place in Arizona on a Saturday.
Courtland Coleman, political director of the Arizona Democratic Party, acknowledged that his party polled the state's Democratic voters on their choice for a presidential candidate (and/or for delegates, designated to vote for particular candidates) on Saturdays in the past.
"It's hard to get volunteers (to man polls) on a weekday," Coleman explained, adding that those Democrats who observe the Sabbath on Saturday were accommodated by the polls staying open past sunset, and by being allowed to vote by mail using early balloting.
He said the only past objection to the Saturday date that he was familiar with was voiced during a race in the 1980s in which Jesse Jackson was a candidate, "and he was considered by some to be anti-Semitic."
Breshin said he was unaware of past primary polls on Saturdays in Arizona.
In 1992, a state law was passed establishing official presidential preference primaries on the fourth Tuesday in February, but only the Republican Party chose to participate in 1996. Arizona Democratic Party attorney John Frank with the law firm Lewis & Roca said federal party rules prohibited such a late primary. Republicans in Arizona held conventions to choose their delegates, not primaries, until 1996.
The proposed Super Saturday primary, which still needs to be approved by the participating states' legislatures, is intended to make the West a steppingstone to the White House. The plan was drafted by the Western Presidential Primary Task Force, which met in Salt Lake City last month.
The eight-state bloc could deliver 70 more Republican delegates and 111 fewer Democratic delegates than California. States involved in the proposed primary would be Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah.
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