Analysis: New Hampshire Primary Officially Set for January 8, Earliest Date in History

New Hampshire Secretary of State William M. "Bill" Gardner officially set the date of the New Hampshire primary for January 8. Gardner acted immediately after the Michigan Supreme Court validated the scheduling of the Badger State's primary on January 15, 2008. The early January date is unprecedented for New Hampshire and for the primary and caucus-based Presidential nominating system that quickened in the 1960s and was firmly established by the 1972 election.

The New Hampshire primary is scheduled to be held on January 8, three weeks earlier than the January 27, 2004 and February 1, 2000 dates of the last two primaries held in the Granite State. The primary will come five days after the Iowa caucuses that traditionally are held a week before New Hampshire's special election for nominating Presidential candidates.

Iowa's Democratic and Republican Parties have scheduled their nominating caucuses for January 3, 2008, two days after New Year's Day. Holding the Iowa caucuses so close to the holiday season, when many potential caucus participants may still be traveling, may limit participation by the party activists who attend the events to pledge support for a candidate in order to allot delegates to the national conventions.

In the summer of 2007, the Michigan Presidential primary date was set for January 15, 2008, beating New Hampshire's earliest date for a primary by nearly two weeks. New Hampshire law holds that the Granite State's primary must be the first in the nation, and it is such an enshrined tradition, the two major parties refuse to sanction the state, even as it has pushed the date forward into January to fend off other state's attempts to establish themselves as the first. New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner had threatened to push the primary to December 2007, if need be, to keep the first primary in the Granite State.