WashPost.:
South Carolina’s Republican Party will move its 2008 presidential primary forward to Jan. 19, sources said yesterday, a decision almost certain to spark a cascade of calendar changes that could push the start of voting to New Year’s Day or even to before Christmas.
The move, set to be announced today, is likely to cause the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses to be shifted at least to early January, and other states are actively angling to stake out spots earlier in the process. The maneuvering has injected a new note of uncertainty into what is already the earliest-starting presidential campaign in history, and top strategists for the candidates said it would force them to revise their carefully worked out plans.
Katon Dawson, who heads the South Carolina GOP, made the shift to retain the distinction of holding the “first in the South” presidential primary balloting. Dawson’s move was sparked by the Florida legislature’s decision to upstage South Carolina by moving the state’s primary to Jan. 29. South Carolina had been scheduled to vote Feb. 2.
. . .
“We understand that us naming the date has consequences for New Hampshire. We respect that,” Dawson said yesterday as he boarded a plane to New Hampshire, where he plans to make the announcement alongside Gardner. But he added: “We have an historic place in presidential politics. We’ve been on record for two years that we will be first in the South.”
Historic? For TWO years? Huh?
Here’s a thought: how about letting all the states vote on the same day, just like we do in regular elections? What’s wrong with that?
