Super Tuesday, 2008

The large number of states that held elections on February 5 could have shortened the period between the first caucus in Iowa, on January 3, 2008, and the de facto selection of a party's nominee to just a few weeks.

On June 3, 2007, the name "Tsunami Tuesday"—conveying the potential of the large number of simultaneous primaries to completely change the political landscape—was mentioned on Meet the Press during a round-table discussion with presidential campaign strategists James Carville, Bob Shrum, Mary Matalin, and Mike Murphy.

Voting was hampered in several states by a major tornado outbreak that killed 57 people, and competed with the primaries for the news.

[2][3] However to increase their importance in the candidate selection process, several states moved up their contests, which some pundits criticized as being "pure self-interest.

"[10] The following states changed their elections to February 5: Alaska,[16] Arizona,[17][18] California,[3] Colorado,[17] Connecticut,[19] Georgia,[16] Idaho Democrats,[20] Illinois,[4] Kansas Democrats†,[21] Massachusetts,[22][23] Minnesota,[5] Montana Republicans§,[24] New Jersey,[25] New York,[26] and Tennessee.

[12] As a result, the Democratic National Committee controversially stripped the states of Michigan and Florida of all pledged convention delegates.

[28] The Republican National Committee reduced by half the number of convention delegates from five states: Wyoming, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and Michigan.

In a BBC News interview, William F. Galvin, the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth said: The people who are being left out of this are the voters, especially those who aren't active in party affairs ...