Yearning to bump up primaries in such states as Michigan and Florida has caused controversy over why the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina primaries continue to be held first.

Michigan and Florida, which have been pushing to begin their primaries sooner, are now running into difficulties with the “Four State Pledge” signed by a majority of leading Democratic presidential candidates, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.

The Four State Pledge, supported by the Democratic National Committee and such political leaders as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., was created to ensure the rules of the DNC’s nominating calendar are adhered to. By signing the pledge, political leaders promised not to visit states that have moved up their primaries.

“The Democratic National Committee has been taking the lead by sanctioning jealous, aggressive states like Michigan and Florida that have a real desire to break calendar rules,” said Don McDowell, consultant with ISU College Republicans and senior in political science.

McDowell said states’ decisions to move up their primaries are causing some real headaches for presidential candidates – especially those in the lower tier.

“It makes it difficult for candidates to figure out a strategy. It is causing a circus and chaos and reflects the fact that we need a solution before 2012. There definitely needs to be some sanity brought to this issue,” he said.

Suggestions to fix such problems include enacting a regional primary system in which the United States is split into four geographically close regions, McDowell said. Presidential candidates would first attend the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, and then would attend four regional primaries. The order of the primaries would be rotated each election to ensure fairness.

Under this system, each state in a region would vote on a different day and another region would vote one month later.

Amanda Halfacre, president of the ISU Democrats and junior in women’s studies, and Tyler Platt, vice president of ISU Democrats and sophomore in engineering, could not be reached for comment.

Mack Shelley, university professor of political science, also recognizes that Michigan and Florida are causing a lot of problems, but suggests that there may be some legitimacy to their complaints.

Shelley said he has always resented the fact that small states have such power, pulling presidential leaders in over and over. This gives these states, which usually have small populations, many opportunities to see candidates.

Shelley said Democratic leaders, who are saving a lot of money by skipping primaries in Michigan and Florida, could potentially be looked down upon in these states.

“This certainly doesn’t make the Democratic Party look very cuddly. It may make them look like they don’t have their act together,” he said.

Shelley believes the negative impressions created by this won’t be strong enough to sway Democrats to vote for a Republican candidate. However, he does believe that the Republican Party may benefit by being more confident in their candidates’ choices.