California’s presidential primary could find itself squarely in the middle of the Super Tuesday political sweepstakes in 2020 under a proposal being introduced this week at the state Capitol. And while earlier efforts have failed to either influence the outcome of the Democratic or Republican contests or draw high voter turnout, the plan’s author thinks times have changed. “I think there’s a yearning and a hunger for actual engagement,” said Assemblyman Kevin Mullin (D-South San Francisco), the bill’s author. ” There’s not enough discussion of substantive issues that are crucial to Californians.”
If ultimately signed into law, the bill would be the sixth time in two decades that California’s presidential primary was revamped in order to inject the state’s voters into the bloodstream of presidential politics.
Lawmakers first moved the presidential primary from June to March in 1996. Frustrated when additional states then pushed their contests even earlier, California held a presidential-only election on Feb. 5, 2008. Turnout in that election, won by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain, was higher than it had been in almost three decades. But elections officials, then tasked with congressional and legislative primaries in June, complained about the cost of holding three statewide elections in a single year.
Full Article: Make California (politically) great again, says lawmaker who wants to move the presidential primary to Super Tuesday – LA Times.