January's D.C. Primary

IN LESS THAN three weeks, registered Democrats and Statehood Green Party members in the District will get a chance to cast their ballots in something called a Presidential Preference Primary Election.

There is much that separates the District's presidential primary from those to be conducted in the rest of the country. The D.C. primary has the distinction of being the first in the nation. It is also non-binding on delegates and alternates to their national party conventions. In addition, several nationally recognized candidates have withdrawn their names from the District's Democratic ballot. That is a setback for local leaders who undertook to make the D.C. primary America's first. Still, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics intends to open the polls from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 13. D.C. Democrats and Statehood Green Party stalwarts therefore have an opportunity to let the rest of the country know how they feel about the candidates who have been willing to step forward and ask for the support of voters in the nation's capital.

The sample Democratic ballot, though reduced in size by no-shows, contains some names that should be familiar to local party members. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean's name is first on the list of 11 candidates. Democrats will also find the names of the Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former senator and ambassador Carol Moseley Braun. Lyndon LaRouche, listed number nine, has chosen this year to run as a Democrat. The last name on the Democratic list is that of Vermin Supreme, a candidate about whom we have heard and know nothing.

The same goes for the two names listed as candidates on the Statehood Green presidential ballot. The remaining two listed Statehood Green preference categories, "No candidate" and "Write in, if any," are more familiar. For its part, the D.C. Republican Party has chosen to sit out the January presidential primary. Instead the local GOP will conduct a presidential preference caucus on Feb. 10.

The city is now beyond the point of debating whether it was worth the time and expense to make the D.C. Democratic presidential primary the first in the nation. The date is set, and election machinery is being put in place. All that's left is for voters to decide whether to enter or avoid the polls on Jan. 13. That will represent a key judgment on the wisdom of changing the date -- and maybe produce a signal for the Democratic candidates for president.