To avoid repercussions from the national political parties, state legislators hope to push back Wisconsin's presidential primaries.
The Wisconsin State Assembly will vote Tuesday on a bill to push the state's presidential primary election from Feb. 28 to April 3 in order to stay compliant with new federal guidelines.
New primary election rules agreed on by both the Democratic and Republican national committees prohibit most states from holding primary elections before the first Tuesday in March.
States that violate the new rules would lose up to half of their delegates at the national party conventions, decreasing their influence in the candidate nomination process.
The national revision is meant to prevent jockeying between states, similar to what occurred in 2008, when Florida and Michigan moved primaries ahead of Feb. 5in order to give their states a greater role in the primary process.
The bill's sponsor, state Sen. Mary Lazich, R-Waukesha, said she would like to see Wisconsin's primaries happen early, and thus play a greater role in the overall candidate selection. However, Lazich conceded that the potential price of moving up primaries outweighs any gains.
""My preference would be to have our elections as early as possible, to be a major player, but they wanted to keep Super Tuesday sacred,"" Lazich said, using the name given to the election-year Tuesday when the majority of state primaries are held. ""I don't think anyone likes this.""
The new date of the primary election, April 3, is designed to coincide with the state's spring general election.
""If we have to move to after March 1, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have [elections] the second Tuesday in March and the first Tuesday in April,"" Lazich said.
