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      "date": "2012-02-27",
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      "title": "Presidential Nominating Process: Current Issues",
      "summary": "After a period of uncertainty over the presidential nominating calendar for 2012, the early states again settled on January dates for primaries and caucuses. Iowa held its caucuses on January 3 and New Hampshire held its primary on January 10. These two states, along with South Carolina and Nevada, are exempt from Republican national party rules that do not permit delegate selection contests prior to the first Tuesday in March, but specify that these contests may not be held before February 1. Officials in Florida announced that the state would hold a January 31, 2012, primary, in violation of party rules, which prompted South Carolina and Nevada to schedule unsanctioned events as well. South Carolina scheduled its primary on January 21; Nevada Republicans originally scheduled party caucuses for January 14, but changed the date to February 4. States that violate the rules risk losing half their delegates, as a number of states already have.\nEvery four years, the presidential nominating process generates complaints and proposed modifications, often directed at the seemingly haphazard and fast-paced calendar of primaries and caucuses. The rapid pace of primaries and caucuses that characterized the 2000 and 2004 cycles continued in 2008, despite national party efforts to reverse front-loading.\nThe Democratic Party approved changes to its calendar rules in July 2006, when the party\u2019s Rules and Bylaws Committee extended an exemption to Nevada and South Carolina (Iowa and New Hampshire were previously exempted) from the designated period for holding delegate selection events; and the committee proposed sanctions for any violations. With the exception of these four states, Democratic party delegate selection rules dictate that the first determining step in choosing national convention delegates could not begin until February 5, 2008. The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) stripped Florida of its national convention delegates on August 25, 2007, because the legislature scheduled the 2008 presidential primary for January 29, a date that conflicted with party rules. Michigan Democrats also forfeited their national convention delegates by scheduling a January 15 primary. In the end, the DNC decided on May 31, 2008, to seat full delegations for each state with a half vote for each of the delegates, thereby reducing each delegation\u2019s vote by 50% at the convention. On the day before the convention, the Credentials Committee restored full voting rights for both state delegations.\nFor the 2012 election, the two national parties agreed to a calendar format that would limit most state contests until after the first Tuesday in March, with exceptions for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. The cooperation to reduce front-loading was unprecedented and resulted in fewer early events and a more even distribution of contests thereafter. \nFront-loading is only the most recent among a list of complaints about the nominating system, which has resisted wholesale change despite criticism from voters, the candidates, and the press. After several decades of debate, observers are divided on the best approach to reform. The lack of consensus for reworking the primary system is due partly to its complex design, which frustrates pursuit of a simple, obvious solution, and partly to the political parties pursuing their own variable interests on their delegate selection rules. The states further complicate the process by independently scheduling primary election dates. Congress, political commentators, academics, and others have offered various reform proposals over the years, but many important dimensions of reform depend on the parties\u2019 willingness to change the system for choosing delegates to their national conventions. No bills have been introduced in the 112th Congress to revise the nominating process.",
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      "id": "RL34222_2012Jan27",
      "date": "2012-01-27",
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      "title": "Presidential Nominating Process: Current Issues",
      "summary": "This report discusses issues regarding the Presidential Nomination Process including information about the 2008 election, calendar changes from 1988 to 2008, changes to national party rules for 2012, an evaluation of the primary system, reform proposals, and legislative considerations.",
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      "summary": "Pressure to change the nominating system mounted in the turbulent political climate of the 1960s, due to the perception that the process was undemocratic. A transforming event occurred at the Democratic convention in 1968, where violent confrontations between war protesters and the Chicago police outside the convention hall, and bitter credentials disputes inside, spurred Democrats to completely change the party's nominating rules. The new rules transferred the power of choosing delegates from party leaders to rank-and-file voters, opening the process to widespread popular participation for the first time. Many state parties switched to primaries to comply with the newly adopted national party rules. The Republican Party also modified its rules in the early 1970s.",
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