Gov. Tim Kaine

WASHINGTON – Who can forget the Democratic Party’s messy primary season last year, when Democrats in two big states — Florida and Michigan – ended up in a standoff with the national party?

To recap, party rules stipulated that just four states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina — could hold nominating contests before Feb. 5 last political season.

Florida Democrats apparently thought the rules didn’t apply to them and set its primary for Jan. 29. Likewise, Michigan Democrats thumbed their noses at the Democratic National Committee and scheduled a primary for Jan. 15.

The result was a bunch of confusion, wasted energy and gamesmanship by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with delegates from those two states punished by given one-half votes at the Democratic convention in Denver.

Hoping to avoid a replay, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, chairman of the DNC (and a Mizzou grad), last night announced that he had formed a 37-member Democratic Change Commission to recommend — guess what — change to the Democrats’ 2012 presidential nominating and delegate selection process.

He picked Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn to head the group and said he hopes to work with the Republican Party to find some common solutions.

The commission, made up of politicians and activists, has three assignments: changing the window of time when primaries and caucuses may be held; reducing the number of Democratic superdelegates who automatically have convention votes; and improving the caucus system.

Democrats, of course, should have considerably less difficulty in 2012 with a sitting president aiming for a second term. All eyes will be on wide-open race in the GOP featuring the likes of Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and who knows who competing for the nomination.

(Join me on Wednesdays at 11 St. Louis time for the DC Download chat to talk about national politics, Congress and all things Washington. You can post your questions or comments here early.)