Here we go again. Labor Day is near, and the four-year presidential election cycle will shift into high gear. For months, we had media reports of candidates tromping through the hills and valleys of our neighbor state New Hampshire. I’ve written about this before, but I have to repeat that I think it is madness for Massachusetts, never mind the whole nation, to let New Hampshire claim the number one position for presidential primary election voting. Iowa has its caucus, and that’s another story, but New Hampshire has been allowed to be first in line again, giving its un-representative population outsized influence in the contest for the White House and flowing from that the make-up of the Supreme Court in the next four years. I cannot understand why the Massachusetts Democratic and Republican Parties and the Democratic-dominated legislature (and the Republicans should be in on this also) do not challenge this “fact on the ground” of New Hampshire having to be first. If I had the authority, on behalf of our state, I would move the Massachusetts presidential primary to the same day as that of New Hampshire. If New Hampshire’s politicians, as they would (bet the house on it), continued to vote to put its election a week earlier, I would stay with the Massachusetts co-primary date even if N.H. backed the date up to Halloween of the prior year. Our friends to the north should not be allowed to get away with this power and money grab that’s been going on for decades and which makes the whole election process go sideways. Stop letting them eat Massachusetts’s lunch. And then they go around the corner and laugh about it among themselves. “We pulled it off agan,” they chuckle, barely believing that they are getting away with it. How can Texas and Illinois and California, not to mention the other New England states on the outside looking in, step aside while New Hampshire runs to the counter to get served first? I don’t care about tradition or retail politics or New Hampshire’s “thoughful” voters or whatever excuse they cook up in the Granite State to continue stealing the spotlight, campaign expenditures, and intangible “juice” that flows from being in the front seat. I guess it’s too late for 2016, but paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, “There they go again.” We’re supposed to be a smart group of people in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It’s not enough for the Boston TV and radio stations to get a piece of the advertising action because they overlap the N.H. market. It’s more important than that if you believe in the democratic process. New Hampshire has had its turn at being first for a long time. There’s being polite to others, and then there’s not taking care of your own business. Let’s get real about this.