Firsties

Some New Hampshire politicians are again freaking out over Nevada’s caucuses sharing the same month with their presidential primary.

If plans by the Democratic National Committee become final, Nevada’s caucuses in 2012 will be four days after the New Hampshire primary. That’s too close for comfort, apparently, even though by the time New Hampshire holds its supposedly first-in-the-nation primary the Iowa caucuses will be over.

“The New Hampshire Primary would be on Tuesday, Feb. 14, and the Nevada Caucuses would occur on Saturday, Feb. 18,” wrote New Hampshire State Rep. Jim Splaine in a Foster newspaper.

“We cannot allow the Nevada Piggy-Back to occur, and we need to encourage our New Hampshire Democratic national party representatives to hold to a position that there will not be another major nominating event within a week after New Hampshire. We have to ask our Republican national party representatives to do the same.”

Splaine did not explain why New Hampshire needs a seven-day buffer, or even why New Hampshire needs to be first.

New Hampshire law allows the secretary of state to move the primary on short notice if the state’s primacy is threatened, though the 2008 experience when the Democratic Party successfully penalized states violating party schedules gives states food for thought in the future.

In 2008, there was a great deal of Granite State grumbling over Nevada being allowed to hold its event in January.

The Republican National Committee last week also selected Nevada, Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire as the four early February dates.