We shed no tears for the apparent failure of an effort to revive Colorado's presidential preference primary.

First, it would be expensive - about $2 million. Second, even if moved up to Feb. 5, it would probably be too little and too late to have any effect on the nominations. Third, party rules - particularly Democratic Party rules - make an earlier primary irrelevant because it wouldn't ultimately determine how delegates to the national conventions would be apportioned.

If managed right, the caucuses could do as good a job as a primary - at no expense to the state.

Our fling with the preference primary was brief and inglorious, beginning in March 1992 and effectively ending in 2000. In 1992 Jerry Brown won the Democratic primary here, with 29 percent of the vote to 27 percent for Bill Clinton and 26 percent for Paul Tsongas.

But at the Democratic National Convention that summer, Clinton got 26 Colorado delegate votes to Brown's 19 and Tsongas' 13. Why? Because the Democrats allowed a slew of so-called superdelegates - elected officials, national committee representatives, "distinguished party leaders" - to vote as well, and they weren't bound by the popular vote on the first ballot. By then, Clinton was the clear favorite, and they voted with the front-runner.

Republicans, by the way, apportioned all their delegates the way the popular vote comes out on the first ballot.

Although a presidential primary may be dead, there apparently will be a bill to move our caucuses up to Feb. 5. Sponsoring Rep. Alice Madden, D-Boulder, thinks we could become part of a Western regional primary, and thus draw more attention from the candidates.

And perhaps we would, but not enough to make a difference. California, which not long ago had its primary in June, has already decided on Feb. 5. Almost two dozen other states have or are about to move up to the same date, including Florida, Texas, Michigan, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Colorado would get lost in that shuffle, especially since neither party has a reporting system that gives the national media any idea who is favored by caucus-goers. For years Iowa has reported straw-poll results in time for the late news that night in the East; Colorado never has. It takes days, if not weeks, to get an inkling of who's ahead.

But that could be fixed, if the parties took the trouble to set up a system. Our results may not matter elsewhere but at least we would know how the candidates did here. And the fact that there are instant results might boost caucus attendance considerably.

Madden has said she would be willing to change the law so that each party can choose its own caucus date. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that parties are private organizations and thus their rules trump state statutes. But it could do no harm to make the law jibe with the rules.