Cross-posted from PrairieStateBlue. Please join us for your Illinois politics blogging.
Illinois has now officially moved it's primary to February 5th. What is perhaps more important is that this change will also affect primaries for state and congressional offices. That's less time for recruitment of candidates, voter identification and education, and increase visibility. Challenges to incumbents of any stripe need to get going soon in order to be effective.
The Tribune has the summary of why it happened. Both the "official" reason and the "real" reason.
"Illinois is the fifth largest state in the country. The people who live here deserve to play a bigger role in deciding who the presidential candidates will be," Blagojevich said in a statement.
The move was orchestrated by the state's Democratic leadership in an effort to aid home-state U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.