The liberal blogs are reporting that Maryland and Washington D.C. may move their primaries to February 12, to join Virginia and make a regional primary.

Washington D.C. tried to go first back in 2004, but the DNC didn’t like it, and declared the results were nonbinding. D.C. activists wanted convention delegates to pledge their support of the primary and if I remember correctly, Howard Dean won it.

(Wikipedia reports, “January 14 was a non-binding primary (no delegates apportioned). Ten of the District of Columbia’s pledged delegates were awarded at ward-level caucuses on February 14; the other six were awarded based on the February 14 results in a convention on March 6.)

So Maryland would move up and D.C. would move back (but get taken seriously), but it’s not clear how much this would matter, since 19 states will have voted a week earlier.

The current schedule, according to ABC News … although I note they don’t have the latest date for the California primary, which has been moved up to Feb. 5:

Jan. 14, 2008: Iowa presidential caucuses
Jan. 19, 2008: Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses
Jan. 22, 2008: New Hampshire presidential primary
Jan. 29, 2008: South Carolina Democratic presidential primary
Feb. 2, 2008: South Carolina Republican presidential primary
Feb. 5, 2008: Presidential primaries for Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. Caucuses for North Dakota. Republican primary in Nevada
Feb. 9, 2008: Washington Democratic and Louisiana Republican presidential primaries
Feb. 10, 2008: Maine Democratic presidential caucuses
Feb. 12, 2008: Tennessee and Virginia presidential primaries
Feb. 19, 2008: Wisconsin presidential primary
Feb. 26, 2008: Hawaii Democratic presidential caucuses
Mar. 2, 2008: Hawaii Republican presidential caucuses
Mar. 4, 2008: Presidential primaries for Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. Presidential caucuses in Minnesota Mar. 11, 2008: Mississippi and Pennsylvania presidential primaries Mar. 15, 2008: Alaska Democratic presidential caucuses Mar. 18, 2008: Illinois presidential primary Mar. 21, 2008: Maine Republican presidential caucuses Apr. 1, 2008: Kansas presidential primary May 6, 2008: Indiana presidential primary May 13, 2008: Nebraska and West Virginia presidential primaries May 6, 2008: Indiana presidential primary May 20, 2008: Kentucky and Orgeon presidential primaries Jun. 3, 2008: California and South Dakota presidential primaries