Tennessee’s Republican and Democrat party chairmen have found an issue they agree on — and they’re working on it together, the City Paper reports.

They want to make our Presidential Primary earlier, so that Tennessee voters have a greater say in the outcome. The states with the earliest primaries or caucuses really have more influence, because some of the candidates inevitably drop by the wayside after losing the early contests.

The downside though, is that maybe the field of candidates is winnowed too soon, leaving the two major party contenders to duke it out for too long in the post-primary season. It invariably gets ugly, and people are left wondering if they really have the best set of choices.

Can someone remind me why we don’t just have one nationwide primary day for the presidential election? Is it to allow the candidates to devote more individualized attention to smaller states like Iowa, New Hampshire, or Tennessee, rather than just hanging out in New York, California, and Texas?

We’ve all seen the problems associated with calling election results before the polls close; how is this nutty, staggered primary system any different?