Hush, Hush & On the QT: Primaries — Who’s on First? Updated

Imagine getting this Christmas card from one of your Iowan friends — with Santa Claus dropping his ballot into a box, the caption reads: “Ho, Ho, Ho. Happy Holidays. GO VOTE!”

The South Carolina Republican Party chairman decided on Thursday to move up his state’s Republican presidential primary to Jan. 19th although the SC Democrats will probably stay with a Jan. 29 time frame. That could force New Hampshire to roll back their presidential primary date for both Republicans and Democrats to Jan. 8th.  Iowa, which has to maintain its first place designation, may have to look to mid-December.

Confused? Read on….By law, Iowa’s party caucuses must be eight days before New Hampshire’s primaries, and New Hampshire, by law, requires its primaries to be a week before any other state. So a change in one state’s presidential caucus or primary can reverberate down the line to Iowa.

Both Michigan and Florida state political parties are contemplating moving up their caucuses despite the threat of sanctions from their national organizations that may include “confiscating” some of the delegates to the parties’ national conventions in 2008.

So what’s the current presidential caucus/primary state calendar? Don’t blink! Or this will change.

Monday, Jan. 14, 2008: Iowa Republican and Democratic caucuses
Saturday, Jan. 19: Nevada Democratic caucus
Tuesday, Jan. 22: New Hampshire Republican and Democratic primaries
Tuesday, Jan. 29: South Carolina Democratic primary
Tuesday, Jan. 29: Florida Republican and Democratic primaries
Saturday, Feb. 2: South Carolina Republican primary
Super Duper Primary, Tuesday, Feb. 5 Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, new Mexico, new York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah.

Now, SC Republicans may have influenced the change of dates to this schedule:

Mid-December: Iowa Republican and Democratic caucuses
Tuesday, Jan. 8: New Hampshire Republican and Democratic primaries
Saturday, Jan. 19: S.C. Republican primary
Saturday, Jan. 19: Nevada Democratic caucus
Tuesday, Jan. 29: South Carolina Democratic primary
Tuesday, Jan. 29: Florida Republican and Democratic primaries
Super Duper Primary, Tuesday, Feb. 5 Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, new Mexico, new York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah. (Some states have not officially set their primary/caucus day, so this list is fluid.)

Time for a change? How about a National Caucus Day?
The organization, National Presidential Caucus (NPC), is heading the cause to have one for Dec. 7, 2007. They propose:

Timeline:
September 3, Caucus registration opens. Local volunteer organizer/conveners across the country will be invited to set up a National Caucus in their community to convene as either Republican, Democratic or Open Caucuses.

A Preliminary “Straw Poll” Caucus on October 26 will refine National Caucus rules and allow for feedback and improvements to the process.

On December 7, National Caucus Day, there will be 2-hour meetings anytime between 3pm and 8pm local time. Organizers will facilitate a round table discussion where participants will speak about their most important issues and establish a group consensus on the top 2-3 issues for that caucus. Then, a second round of discussion will be held to express candidate preferences. The organizer will post the results at www.NationalCaucus.com for aggregation and general reporting.

NPC Goals:

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