- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
SC Primary Moves to Jan. 19
Email
ShareAugust 09, 2007 2:11 PM
ABC News' Karen Travers Reports: South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson made the first move on the political primary chess board this morning by announcing that the South Carolina Republican primary will be held on January 19, 2008, setting in motion a chain reaction that will bump up the dates of the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucuses.
To preserve their status as "First in the Nation" and "First in the South," the South Carolina GOP and New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner have gotten together and formed an alliance not unlike one on "Survivor."
"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 at the State House in Concord, NH.
The South Carolina Republican primary was originally scheduled for Feb. 2 but after Florida moved its primary to Jan. 29, Palmetto State GOP-ers wanted to leapfrog Florida to keep their premiere status. The South Carolina Democratic primary, however, will remain on Jan. 29.
It appears that Iowa Democratic and Republican leaders will hold off on any announcement until New Hampshire sets its primary date.
And it looks like the New Hampshire primary will be somewhere between January 8 and January 12, which leaves Iowa with three options:
Make the unprecedented move to a December 2007 caucus date -- not likely the most desirable option for either party.
Select Monday Jan. 7, which doesn’t leave much time after the holidays to pump up participation.
Give up first-in-the-nation status and go second on Jan. 14 -- something Gov. Culver seemed to rule out in comments yesterday.
Gov. Culver told Radio Iowa's Kay Henderson, "Iowa will go first. That is the bottom line."
New Hampshire GOP chair Fergus Cullen told ABC News that the coordination between the states shows respect for the traditional roles New Hampshire and South Carolina have played in the early primary season. Cullen said it also provides an opportunity to keep the early states' primary dates in 2008 and avoid moving the calendar ahead to 2007.
New Hampshire Secretary of State Gardner is not expected to make any announcements today about the date of his state's primary –- he is going to keep everyone waiting until the fall.
August 9, 2007 in Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (5)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
I hope Minnesota follows suit here.
Posted by: Cat | Aug 9, 2007 4:46:26 PM
This is a good thing. Now Iowa will move up to December 16 and New Hampshire will move up to around January 8 and then South Carolina on January 19. That leaves plenty of time between them for the results of the previous one to be digested and then for momentum to build and a campaign to take place for the next one.
It means losers in Iowa are going to be sticking out as losers all through the Christmas and New Year's Holiday season. This certainly helps Romney, who is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire. This probably really hurts McCain and Giuliani who are going to get clobbered in Iowa. McCain likely will drop out after Iowa (staying in that long only to qualify for Federal Matching Funds).
Giuliani will get clobbered again in New Hampshire (By Romney at least and maybe also by Thompson), so then Giuliani will be in the spotlight as a *double big-loser* for another eleven days going into South Carolina -- where he's going to get clobbered again because of his liberal social views by fellow Southerner Fred Thompson.
Does anybody really think Giuliani will still be a viable candidate after that? *After getting clobbered in the first three primaries?* Oh, please. Get real.
Posted by: Jhopolong | Aug 9, 2007 5:56:27 PM
Interesting poll out today on Iowa by the Universiity of Iowa. Different polls say different things, so I like to compare the same poll from time period to time period. The previous University of Iowa poll was in March and the changes have been dramatic for Giuliani and even more so for McCain. . . . Since March, Giuliani has dropped from 20 to 11. That's a huge drop. But McCain has dropped from 21 to 3. That is a mindboggling drop. . . . Romney on the other hand has gone up, from 17 to 27. . . . Is there any doubt Amnesty killed McCain's campaign? Amnesty is also going to kill Giuliani's.
Posted by: Jake | Aug 9, 2007 6:32:03 PM
We can only hope that the primaries have the opposite of their intended effect: that they benefit Ron Paul. Hopefully, Ron Paul's large and devoted team of supporters throws blood, sweat, tears, and door-to-door campaigning with everything they have at Iowa and New Hampshire. That they truly reach the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire. The real Americans.
Let the major media-chosen "top tier" candidates recover from that! Who in the nation could fail to see that they were all simply power-grubbing clowns, begging for "federal matching funds" in the same manner that a welfare queen begs for welfare payments? Who could fail to notice that Ron Paul stands alone in rejecting this money, as his principles dictate? How dare the "top tier" candidates take federal matching funds to force me to support their socialist policies? Aren't they "Republicans"? Aren't they against socialist money-redistribution? These so-called "Republicans" are even more socialist than the openly socialist Democrats are!! At least the typical Chicago welfare queen is feeding her family with the money she gets!!!!! These professional parasites are just feeding their bloated egos!
If there is a great way to show that the emperor is wearing no clothes (and that he is physically endowed like a squirrel), this is it! The American people need to shame their simpleton sock puppet public masters in the early primaries.
The early primaries are likely to backfire on the politicians who want to use them as an easy ride into the whitehouse. How much fun would it be to see Ghouliani backpedaling from his criticisms of Paul in a failing attempt to win back support from Paul? There isn't a red-blooded American who wouldn't love to see Ghouliani denouncing his past support of gun control to try to match Paul's PERFECT RECORD ON GUN RIGHTS. For once, a politician would be forced to admit that he had been a complete ass! It's not every day that we're treated to such a spectacle!
There is only one politician who expects to EARN his way into the whitehouse on the strength of his ideas, with no tricks, or institutionalized support. Go Ron Paul! May you shame the Republican Party's "top tier(of flotsam)" with your knowledge of the beloved US Constitution, and it's sacred Bill of Rights!
Posted by: Jake Witmer | Aug 10, 2007 4:07:58 PM
I certainly expect Ron Paul to do quite well in the Iowa Caucauses and in New Hampshire(Remember Pat Buchanan won in '96 when the pundits were giving him little chance) ...Much better than anyone expects...The MSM's annointing of Romney,Thompson and Guiliani is ridiculous...These clowns aren't conservative in practice or principle...The GOP has lost it's way...that's for sure...any more phoney "conservatives"like Bush and the GOP is toast... Supporting the stupid War on "Islamfascism" is a loser...We can fight terrorism without declaring war on the whole freakin' world....
Posted by: Robert Simon | Aug 12, 2007 11:59:33 PM
Post a comment
