Fromn Iowa Politics
After a 6 p.m. conference call the Republican Party of Iowa is expected to announce tonight it will hold its caucus on Jan. 3, moving up from Jan. 14.
The Iowa Democratic Party has not announced whether it will join the RPI on Jan. 3 or hold the Democratic caucus on another date (Jan. 5 has been mentioned as an option). Dems continue to say their caucus is set for Jan. 14.
The IDP may be standing pat until New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner announces the date for his state's primary. Gardner, who has said he wants to keep New Hampshire and Iowa first in the nation, has yet to announce the final date for that state's primary. Iowa Secretary of State Mike Mauro has been in contact with Gardner and said today that New Hampshire would like to hold the primary in 2008, but has not locked in a date. Insiders expect a New Hampshire announcement to come as early as the first week of November. The IDP has not publicly discussed a change in its caucus date.
If the two parties hold their events on different dates that would be the first time since the 1970s the two parties did not hold the caucuses on the same night. RPI Executive Director Chuck Laudner said his organization wants to set a date to get to work on organizing the event. "Our county chairs need time to plan this caucus," Laudner said. "If we are going to earn first-in-the-nation status we have to do this right. We can't wing it."Gov. Chet Culver said in August he does not want to see the caucus held in December. He said it is only right to hold a presidential nominating event for 2008 in the same calendar year as the election. Democratic insiders say the governor is maintaining that stance.
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