South Carolina Republicans are set to move up primary

South Carolina Republicans will move up their 2008 presidential primary, setting the stage for New Hampshire and Iowa to schedule earlier contests to preserve their traditional first-in-the-nation statuses.

William M. Gardner, New Hampshire's secretary of state, and Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, have scheduled a joint news conference for 11 a.m. today at the State House in Concord to announce the South Carolina change.

Several media outlets reported that the new date would be Saturday, Jan. 19. Hogan Gidley, executive director of the South Carolina Republican Party, confirmed that the party will announce it is moving up its primary date but would not specify a date.

Under scenarios being bandied about yesterday, that could mean New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary would move to early January and the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses to as early as December.

New Hampshire requires a week in between its first-in-the nation primary and the next primary, so it will have to move up its contest, which was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 22 under a timetable set by the Democratic National Committee.

Gardner, who is empowered under state law to set the date of the Granite State primary, would not detail any specifics yesterday, but said he will wait until he is certain all other states are locked into certain dates before formalizing the date of the New Hampshire primary.

The acceleration of the presidential selection process was put in play May 3 when the Florida Legislature voted to move that state's primary to Jan. 29, four days before the Feb. 2 date when South Carolina Republicans had planned their primary.

Dawson immediately vowed that South Carolina would keep its first-in-the-South status. The move would not affect the South Carolina Democratic primary, which is still scheduled for Jan. 29.

A New Hampshire move presumably would force Iowa, which traditionally kicks off the presidential nominating contest, to set an earlier date to maintain that status. Under the DNC timetable, the Iowa caucuses were set for Jan. 14, but Iowa requires an eight-day interval before New Hampshire.

Another complication is that Michigan Democrats are considering moving their primary, now set for Feb. 9, to whatever date New Hampshire finally picks.

Larger states also seeking a bigger say in choosing the nominees, including California and New York, have moved up their nominating contests to Feb. 5, resulting in what has been dubbed Super-Duper Tuesday.

Brian C. Mooney can be reached at bmooney@globe.com.