The Nation - News from March 21, 1986

House Democrats called for an overhaul of the presidential primary system to reduce the undue influence voters in early primaries have on the choice of presidential candidates. Rep. Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican whose state traditionally holds the nation’s first primary, promptly branded the call for changes as “another ill-conceived effort on the part of Congress to wrest control of the election process from the individual states.” But Rep. Al Swift (D-Wash.) insisted the early primaries “distort the nominating process.”