South Carolina Pushes Up GOP Primary

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner left tries to answer questions about a date for the state presidential primary after South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, right, announced Jan. 19 as the date of his state's primary during a news conference at the Statehouse in Concord, N.H., Thursday, Aug. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) (Jim Cole - AP)

During an interview with The Associated Press, Gardner, who holds the power to set New Hampshire's date, said he has no plans to do so anytime soon.

"I just don't know," he said. "One thing at a time. This is one more piece of the puzzle."

In Iowa, GOP Chairman Ray Hoffmann said: "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."

As of Tuesday, Iowa was slated to hold its contest Jan. 14. The DNC wants New Hampshire to go on Jan. 22, but Gardner has not indicated he would cooperate.

Nevada's GOP and Democratic caucuses are scheduled for Jan. 19. Both parties said they had no plans to change the date. "We'll wait and see how the dominos fall," Nevada GOP executive director Zachary Moyle said, leaving the door open a bit.

The leading presidential campaigns watched the South Carolina-triggered scenario unfold with muted interest. All have been anticipating such a move for months and have drawn up strategies based on the assumption of an earlier start to the balloting, including the possibility of December voting.

"What all the campaigns are struggling with, grappling with, is how do you build a campaign with this accelerated schedule?" said Steve Duprey, a former New Hampshire GOP chairman who now is a top adviser to Sen. John McCain. "The challenge for all campaigns is how to set the pace of the campaign, particularly with your paid media so you have the impact."

In separate statements, aides to Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and McCain suggested they wouldn't let the evolving calendar ruffle them.

Matt Rhoades, a Romney spokesman, said: "We can't control the primary calendar but respect the process and intend to continue to run our current campaign strategy."

Exposing rifts in the GOP about the calendar, party leaders elsewhere took issue with South Carolina's move.

"So, while we enter the holiday season, we're going to have all these politicians all over the airwaves? I don't think that's going to be very acceptable to the American people, and I would caution all these states to rethink what they're doing," said Bob Bennett, the GOP chairman in Ohio, which holds its primary March 4. "This is silly."

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Associated Press Writers Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa, Philip Elliott in Concord, N.H., and Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.