New Hampshire Sets Its Earliest Primary

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The New York Sun

CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire set its earliest-ever presidential primary Wednesday, deciding on January 8 and claiming its traditional spot as the nation’s first in a nomination season pushed almost to New Year’s Day of the election year.

Secretary of State William Gardner announced the date, ending months of speculation, including the possibility that the state might actually push its primary into December in order to keep its spot at the head of the line. Iowa, which chooses delegates with a caucus system, begins five days earlier on January 3.

New Hampshire primaries often have shaped presidential contests — sometimes dramatically — for nearly a century. Next year’s early date, less than seven weeks from now, resulted from states around the country scheduling their own early primaries and caucuses to attract candidates before the major party nominees are chosen. As a result, both the Democratic and Republican nominees are likely to be effectively known by February 5, when 22 states vote, if not earlier.

Mr. Gardner set New Hampshire’s date hours after Michigan’s Supreme Court said that state’s primary could go forward as scheduled on January 15, ending a court battle. New Hampshire waited to make sure Michigan wouldn’t schedule caucuses even earlier.

Iowa’s caucuses have led the schedule for several decades, but New Hampshire has had the initial primary for much longer.

“This tradition has served our nation well, as decades of candidates and presidents have said,” Mr. Gardner said.

New Hampshire stands to lose half of its delegates to the Republican convention, reducing the number to 12, because it moved earlier than party rules allow. But state officials are not concerned about that, considering it a small price to pay for the attention New Hampshire gets from its leadoff spot. Democratic rules allow New Hampshire to hold an early primary, so the state will keep all of its 30 delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Candidates have been campaigning hard in New Hampshire under the assumption that the state would vote on the parties’ nominees early in the primary season, as usual.

The Iowa caucuses will start the nominating process on January 3. Wyoming GOP county caucuses follow on January 5, followed by New Hampshire on January 8 and Michigan on January 15. South Carolina Republicans and Nevada will vote on January 19, South Carolina Democrats on January 26 and Florida on January 29.

Both parties plan to penalize the states voting before February 5 if their contests are binding; that includes New Hampshire and Michigan.

Iowa and New Hampshire, two small, predominantly white states, traditionally wield disproportionate influence in presidential politics because of the enormous publicity their early contests get. Democrats tried to leaven the mix this time by adding early contests in Nevada and South Carolina, but Iowa and New Hampshire moved even earlier.

Mr. Gardner and other defenders of New Hampshire say the country — and the candidates — are well-served because the primary requires close contact with voters, not just a big advertising budget and name-recognition. Mr. Gardner also insists that New Hampshire has a uniquely probing and democratic political culture, of which the primary — a progressive reform when it began in 1916 — is part.

He had been prepared to schedule the primary in December if necessary, a possibility that might have benefited Senator Clinton, the Democratic front-runner nationally and in the state, by giving her opponents less time to catch up.


The New York Sun

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