Legislation is proceeding in both houses of the General Assembly to move Virginia’s presidential primary date from the second Tuesday in February to the first Tuesday in March, for 2012 and going forward. The House of Delegates P&E Committee on February 11 reported out the Senate bill, SB 1246, by a vote of 21-1. The House bill, HB 1843, is in Senate P&E.
Meanwhile, if DC, and/or Maryland, and or other adjoining states chose the same date, we can have a clustered primary, like the 2008 Potomac Primary, and Virginia will get bonus delegates. Frontloading HQ reports that such a bill is pending in Maryland, but a bill moving the date to the first Tuesday in April is more likely to pass. So far, the only legislation in DC moves their primary to June. But maybe we can cluster with Tennessee, which is looking at the first tuesday in March date. Stay tuned.