For as long as I can remember Maryland has been a Super Tuesday state, meaning that we vote in the Democratic primary along with the majority of other states like California and New York.

 

So you can imagine my surprise on reading this:

 

Whaaaa!? So when did this happen and do our voters even know?

 

I'm politically active and consider myself to usually be pretty well informed. All the primary maps (CNN etc) have been showing us as among the Super Tuesday states. At least that was true a few weeks ago - I am pretty sure about it, since i was showing the maps to my kids and explaining the whole complicated thing to them.

 

Frankly, after several elections that were already tied up by momentum long before Super Tuesday, I am very dissappointed in our state's Democratic Party leaders that allowed us to fall out of step with the rest of the nation.

 

Did they have some reason that justifies this? I'd like to know.

 

Now, it's very likely that there will be some kind of clear trend emerging on February 5th, and our vote will matter much less than it would've if we voted with the other states.

 

I guess we'll miss out on delicious cake yet again. <sigh>

 

Update: Well, that didn't turn out at all like I thought it would. Instead of a clear leader emerging on Super Tuesday, we got something like a draw, which made the so-called Potomac Primary an actually relevant contest. For once, our Maryland votes counted for something and were noticed. Barack Obama even came to the Baltimore Arena. Sarah and I had a great time going door to door to get the word out about the event. Who knew? But, it is pretty impressive the way my point of view on the date change was turned around 180 degrees.