The final piece of the 2012 Primary and Caucus schedule could finally fall into place this week, as the stage is set for New Hampshire officials to announce the date of their first-in-the-nation primary.
Over the weekend, officials in Nevada gave in after weeks of growing pressure from both the Granite State and national Republican officials, moving the Nevada Caucus back to February 4.
That should allow New Hampshire to pick January 10 for that state's primary, one week after Iowa's Caucus.
That would give us the following schedule in January:
Iowa - January 3
New Hampshire - January 10
South Carolina - January 21
Florida - January 31
Florida caused all of this scheduling trouble by moving their primary into January, which might cost the state some of their delegates at the national party conventions later this year.
Four years ago, Democratic candidates didn't even campaign in Florida because of the hornet's nest stirred up by the early primary date in 2008; no one in the GOP has been talking about a campaign boycott this time in Florida, though they did in Nevada.
Remember last week, the Las Vegas debate was boycotted by Jon Huntsman, who said the Caucus date in the Silver State was too close to where New Hampshire needed to hold its primary.
While other GOP candidates did not join Huntsman in boycotting the debate, several had said they would not come back to Nevada to campaign.
That plus some public and private lobbying by national Republican officials convinced the state GOP to move the caucus back into February.
So, if the New Hampshire Secretary of State can just set that primary in stone, I can start making my plane and hotel reservations.
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