Primary Insanity

South Carolina State Party Chairman Ready to Shake Presidential Campaign

Things are in motion tonight as the calendar for the Republican Presidential nomination moves toward something resembling finality. The Chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, Katon Dawson, is in Concord, New Hampshire, tonight in advance of tomorrow's announcement that the South Carolina Republican primary will be moving forward on the calendar, as expected.

The dominoes started to collide back in May when the Florida Legislature voted to move their primary to January 29th. It was virtually a certainty that South Carolina would change the date of their contest - the only question was, of course - when? The answer to that question, it appears, is Saturday January 19th. Of course, that may be a problem with the Republicans of Nevada, who set their primary for the 19th back in April. As if there weren't enough problems, the South Carolina change means that New Hampshire's scheduled January 22nd primary will jump forward to at least January 15th, but more probably the 8th of January. Since the law in Iowa is that the caucus must be held at least 8 days prior to the New Hampshire primary, missing the Christmas holiday means that the Iowa caucuses coud be as early as December 17th.