Primaries should be reorganized

Our presidential primary system allows small states such as Iowa and New Hampshire to award front-runner status to presidential candidates. From there, the candidates travel a path determined by which states want to leap frog the others by moving up their primary dates. Consequently, party platforms are determined by a make-it-upas-you-go approach.

If the process were organized on a regional basis, candidates would be able to study the regional issues, campaign to confirm those issues and then receive votes based on the solutions they propose.

A regional approach would also prevent a premature selection of a front-runner because success in one region would not guarantee success in the next.

Accordingly, the primaries should occur between January and June of each presidential election year. Each of the six regions would be assigned a month. A lottery held in June of the previous year would determine which month each region holds its primaries. An example illustrates the format:

■ January, Middle West (9): Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin

■ February, Southern (8): Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

■ March, Atlantic (8): Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina,

■ April, New England (8): Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont,

■ May, Northwestern (9): Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming

■ June, Southwestern (9): Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah.

Joe Bialek, Cleveland