South Carolina pushes up primary; Iowa, New Hampshire likely to go earlier, too

CONCORD, N.H. — South Carolina Republicans on Thursday moved their 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 19, triggering a chain reaction among Iowa, New Hampshire and other early voting states that could push the first balloting into December 2007.

South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson made the announcement with officials from New Hampshire, whom he called allies in protecting the traditional early states' voting order.

"We are here to stand shoulder to shoulder with our friends in New Hampshire to reaffirm the important role that both of our states play in presidential politics," Dawson said.

South Carolina had scheduled its Republican primary for Feb. 2, but at a news conference with New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, Dawson said the change to Jan. 19 was needed to protect South Carolina's first-primary-in-the-South tradition.

Given the change, Gardner will be forced by state law to move the New Hampshire primary to at least Jan. 12. Iowa then probably would move up its traditional leadoff caucuses, perhaps to as early as mid-December.

"There's nothing I can do or even think about until I know what New Hampshire is going to do. As far as I'm concerned we are going to be No. 1 in the nation. As far as a date, I don't know yet," Ray Hoffmann, the Republican Party chairman in Iowa, said Thursday.

The primary shift creates major headaches for the national parties determined to impose discipline on the states and the presidential candidates who have struggled to deal with the accelerated schedule and figure out a campaign strategy.

After the rapid-fire early voting in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, some 20 states are slated to vote on Feb. 5 in what amounts to a national primary day. The nominees could be decided as early as the first week of February, raising the possibility of a nearly 10-month general election campaign.

"This frontloading hurts everybody," said Steve Duprey, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman who is now a top adviser to Sen. John McCain. "The particular difficulty that this late-in-the-game leapfrogging causes is that, in the early states, it's particularly difficult for campaigns to put together a plan that leads to that crescendo at the end."

Duprey said it will be difficult for campaigns to get attention and volunteers "because when you have a choice of going in and phonebanking for two nights or going to your child's holiday recital, the recital is going to win."