Continuing the stampede of primaries earlier in the calendar, South Carolina GOP Chairman Chad Connelly announced on Monday that he was moving his state’s from Feb. 28 to Jan. 21.
The 2012 primary calendar is looking increasingly like 2008’s: New Hampshire is almost certain to set its first-in-the-nation primary for Jan. 10, leaving Iowla to hold its caucuses a week earlier, either on Jan. 2 or Jan. 3. Nevada Republicans on Saturday affirmed their decision to hold caucuses the Saturday after New Hampshire’s primary, whenever that takes place.
The four early states were trying to coordinate their scheduling efforts, but Florida’s decision last week to put its primary on Jan. 31 threw things into chaos.
Connelly blasted Florida Monday for forcing South Carolina to move its primary into January, potentially costing the state half its delegates to the Republican National Convention because RNC rules forbid nominating contests before February.
Because New Hampshire law requires it to hold its primary “7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election,” Secretary of State William Gardner will not schedule the state’s primary for Jan. 17, the other Tuesday before South Carolina’s primary.
And it remains unclear whether Nevada and New Hampshire can reconcile Nevada’s effort to hold its caucus five days after the New Hampshire primary with New Hampshire state law.
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Monday, October 3, 2011
Carolina Calendar Chaos
The GOP nomination process keeps evolving. Reid Epstein writes at Politico:
