New York joins Super-Duper Tuesday

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) signed legislation Monday adding New York to the long — and growing — list of states moving up their primaries to Feb. 5, a date recently dubbed “Super-Duper Tuesday.”

“[By] moving the primary date to February, we will help secure New York’s large and diverse population an influential voice in selecting the 2008 presidential nominees,” Spitzer said.

The two most immediate and obvious beneficiaries of the move are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R).

With a compressed and overwhelming early-primary schedule, the addition of New York to such states as California and New Jersey definitely greases the skids for the two New York candidates.

Critics of the loaded early-primary schedule say the number of states involved will allow only the better-funded candidates to compete, and both parties’ nominees will be decided within weeks of the first primary votes being cast.