Editorial: Western primary goes south

Not only would they hold their primaries on the same date -- March 11, 2000 -- under this plan, but for most states they would be held much earlier than in the past. States in other parts of the nation have increasingly decided to hold their presidential preference primaries earlier in the campaign season, so by the time primaries in the West were held, the presidential nominations were already sewn up.

For once, advocates of a Western regional primary reasoned, the smaller Western states would finally have a voice in determining who the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees would be. But the Western regional primary has -- for all intents and purposes -- fizzled as some state legislatures have balked at supporting the plan. Three states have already dropped out: New Mexico, Arizona and Idaho. The only states left are Montana, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada.

Even here in Nevada it is unclear how much support there is for a regional presidential primary, a special election that would cost taxpayers about $1 million. After all, the bill establishing the primary never got out of the Assembly Elections Committee. Its chief sponsor, Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, is now using one of his two emergency bill requests to try to resuscitate the plan in Nevada.

The original purpose of having a regional primary has been effectively gutted by a lack of enthusiasm. The states pushing this proposal the most are also the same states that tend to get ignored. In recent presidential elections Nevada certainly hasn't been bypassed by White House hopefuls.

Admittedly, the principal reason candidates stop here is for fund-raisers in which they can raise huge sums, primarily from the cash-flush casino industry. For Nevada, at least, access to presidential candidates hasn't been much of an issue. And the current occupant of the White House, President Clinton, has done more than any other president to help keep nuclear waste out of Nevada, which is the No. 1 issue for this state at the federal level.

In addition, while proponents of a regional primary believe it would force candidates to address issues specific to the West, the reality is that even here in the West there is no monolithic stand on policies. The urbanization of the West sometimes has resulted in stark differences on issues, such as the environment, between urban and rural residents.

It is time for the Nevada Legislature to pull the plug on its participation in the Western regional primary and use that $1 million for more deserving purposes.

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