As some of you know, I am running for Governor's Council in District 3.  I am running as an Independent, so I dont have a primary in September. There are three Democrats vying for Governor's Counicl as well and they will have a primary on Thurs., September 6 (Thursday, not Tuesday). The winner will run against me on November 6th.

My question to all of you is this:  should Massachusetts do like some of the other states and move our primaries to May or June instead of early September?

The way the system is right now (having primaries in September) is a huge advantage for the incumbent. The incumbent has an already-created base, challengers have a short window as to when they can build a base. Why?  Only the big political observers care about any race, never mind a Governor's Council race during the summer time or before. People really only care about the elections when they come back from vacation and are thinking about getting their kids back to school. If the average person starts paying attention in mid-August, it gives the challengers maybe three-four weeks to create a base, while the incumbent has an already built base. If we were to move our primaries to May/June, people will pay attention to politics then, the candidates can take the first half of the summer off and then since everyone will know who the two (or three) candidates that will be running in November are, they can start campaigning against each other in August. 

What do you think, move our primaries to May/June, or not?

--Tom Sheff