Right On The Right

Could the desire to be the first state to vote in the 2008 elections bring the first votes into 2007? That's now looking like a solid possibility. I just wanted to share this quick bit. From the Washington Wire:

The first 2008 presidential votes may be moving into 2007 after all, making a race that has started earlier than ever even more intense.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson will announce that he is moving its primary date ahead of Florida’s Jan. 29 vote, to reclaim his state party’s “first in the South” presidential-nominating banner. But he will do so in New Hampshire, home of the first-in-the-nation primary. And he will be joined by New Hampshire’s longtime Secretary of State Bill Gardner, who alone has the power to set that state’s date for both parties, now tentatively Jan. 22.

If both were to move their dates up, that likely would force Iowa — always protective of its party caucuses as the first nominating contests of any kind — to consider moving its date from next Jan. 14 into pre-Christmas December.

Technically, both parties have rules against all this state posturing, and could rule that states doing it forfeit their convention delegates, but that's highly unlikely. Even bumping the schedule forward, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are going to go first, followed by a super, or mega, or super-mega, or some other adjective-heavy Tuesday primary day. That's the way it's been, and that's the way it will probably continue to be.