Arizona Democrats Tap Hildebrand, as DNC Plans to Revise '08 Calendar

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WASHINGTON (By Mark Preston, CNN) July 21, 2006 — Arizona Democratic Party officials have lined up veteran political operative Steve Hildebrand to help organize its caucuses if the Democratic National Committee chooses their state to join Iowa and New Hampshire as one of the first proving grounds for Democratic presidential candidates in 2008.

The signing of Hildebrand -- a well respected strategist who ran the Iowa caucuses for Vice President Al Gore in 2000 -- to a contingency contract illustrates to what lengths states are willing to go to demonstrate to the DNC how serious they are about being selected for this early position on Democratic presidential nominating calendar. Arizona has also turned to Gov. Janet Napolitano (D) to personally lobby DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee members to pick her state, while Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) has made similar calls on behalf of Nevada.

"Arizona has a lot to offer and we wanted to make sure everyone knows it," Arizona Democratic Party Chairman David Waid said in an interview with the Grind.

Waid and representatives from nine other states and the District of Columbia will be in Washington, DC this weekend as the DNC's Rules committee chooses two states -- one from the West and another from the South -- for a coveted early position on the presidential primary calendar. One additional caucus state as well as another primary state will be picked Saturday afternoon and presented to the full DNC membership next month for ratification during the organization's summer meeting in Chicago.

Arizona and Nevada are the leading contenders to be chosen for the caucus slot, while Alabama and South Carolina are the frontrunners to be picked as the additional early primary state, multiple sources tell the Grind.

The decision to schedule additional states early on in the Democratic nominating process has not come without controversy. New Hampshire officials vehemently oppose altering the calendar saying it encourages frontloading and will result in Democrats choosing a nominee too early. Don Fowler, a member of the Rules panel from South Carolina, agrees with New Hampshire officials and predicted it will not work out the way it is intended.

"Every scheme that I have run into for the last 30 years has never panned out the way the schemes were planned and I have been a party to them and opposed to them," he said in an interview with the Grind. "But no scheme has really panned out and my guess is that the law of unintended consequences will occur again in 2008."

One person who could throw a wrench into the DNC's plans is New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner. The Granite State has a law that requires New Hampshire to have a seven day window prior to its primary and Gardner has vowed to uphold it. One proposal being floated would have Iowa hold its caucuses on Jan. 14, 2008 followed by the additional caucus state on the 19th and then the New Hampshire primary on the 22nd. The additional primary state would then hold its primary a week later on the 29th.

Proponents of the idea argue that Iowa and New Hampshire have had too much influence in choosing the Democratic presidential nominee and say this plan will help add more ethnic and union diversity to the selection process. And this is just what states such as Arizona and Nevada are promoting.

"I think they would be missing the boat if they passed up Nevada," said Thomas Snyder, national political director for UNITE HERE, a labor union with a strong presence in the Silver State. "It is a very union state, one of the most union-dense states in the country."

But Hildebrand suggests Arizona is the perfect state to join Iowa and New Hampshire early on in the nominating process.

"I believe that Arizona's Hispanic and Native American populations and the fact that there are a number of issues that a presidential candidate will have to deal with on a national basis (in Arizona) provides the best profile for them to be chosen by the DNC," he said.

Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, Michigan, Mississippi and West Virginia join Alabama, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Nevada and South Carolina as states vying for these two coveted slots. Unlike the Democratic Party, the Republican Party will not be altering its presidential primary calendar for 2008.