Bill Gardner, the inscrutable New Hampshire secretary of state who holds the caucus calendar in his hands, had moved up his state's presidential primary filing period, MSNBC reports.
In recent years, New Hampshire filing has run from the first Monday through the third Friday of November -- Nov. 5-23 this year. But Friday Gardner moved the filing period up from Oct. 15 to Nov. 2nd.
Another looming deadline is Oct. 9 - the date by which candidates must ask the Michigan secretary of state to remove their names from the unsanctioned Jan. 15 primary ballot.
New Hampshire's primary is still officially scheduled for Jan. 22, but state law and tradition demand that the Granite State go first, and Gardner alone has the power to set the date. He offered no hints on Friday, but Gardner told MSNBC there is a chance the primary “could be in December.” “We would be ready,” Gardner said. “This allows us to be prepared by moving [the filing period] ahead.”
But the Atlantic's Marc Arbinder says "among the leading Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, remarkable unanimity about (the primary calendar's) most likely shape." He offers this consensus schedule:
Jan. 5: Iowa caucuses (both parties)
Jan. 8: New Hampshire primary (both parties)
Jan. 12: Nevada caucuses (both parties)
Jan. 15 Michigan GOP primary; Dem beauty contest
Jan. 19: South Carolina primary (both parties)
Jan. 29: Florida GOP primary; Dem beauty contest
Arbinder offers the term "beauty contest" for contests that violate the Democratic National Committee's calendar, though party activists in those states angrily insist their votes "will count." The DNC has pledged not to seat Florida's delegates after the state missed a weekend deadline to come into calendar compliance, and Michigan faces similar sanctions.
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