Who's on First? Frontloading Through the Lens of Policy Diffusion.

Building upon previous work that has analyzed the impact state political culture has on a state's decision to move its primary or caucus to an earlier date (Carman and Barker 2005), this paper seeks to examine the within and across cycle movement of presidential delegate selection events as a function of policy innovation and diffusion from 2000-2008. It is hypothesized that states bordering other states that have moved are more likely to shift their primaries and caucuses to earlier dates. A duration model will be employed to track when a state finalizes its frontloading move in relation to the last presidential election date and how that is affected by the movement of neighboring states. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]