Closing the polls at 7 does not matter

It's not like we shouldn't have an outsized influence -- the most populous state, the 3rd largest state, the most ecologically diverse state (due to our broad latitude range combined with coast-to-mountain with large inland valley topography), the 5th largest economy in the world (if we were an independent country).

I know, I know, the danger -- and it is a real one -- is that the electoral college gives outsized influence to smaller states in the general election so supposedly we need to defer to them in the primary too. Given that the voter base is different for the primary and general, this is not self-evidently true, to me. Discordance between the party voters and the wider voter base seems like a bit of a crap shoot, imo.

States like California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois are TOO big to go first. They need to be seeded at points where they influence the race.