RNC Threatens New Hampshire with Loss of Delegates if the Primary is Before February 5th

 New Hampshire law requires that the New Hampshire primary be held at least a week before any other primary. The Democrats were the first to go after New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary status because they feel we are “too white” and don’t represent a cross section of American voters. Howard Dean threatened to remove New Hampshire’s delegates from the Democrat National Convention. Now the Republicans are threatening to remove half of our delegates to the Republican National Convention if New Hampshire moves it’s primary up before February 5th.

State Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen yesterday shrugged off a national GOP panel’s decision to withhold half the state party’s delegates to the Republican national convention next summer.

The unanimous recommendation by the 27-member Republican National Committee’s executive committee was issued as punishment for the New Hampshire’s GOP’s intention to follow state law, as it always has, and hold its presidential primary on a date selected by Secretary of State William Gardner.

An RNC rule forbids any state from holding a presidential delegate selection contest prior to Feb. 5, 2008. The same rule was in effect in 2004 but was not enforced because there was not a contested GOP primary and no one in the RNC complained, RNC Chair Robert “Mike” Duncan said during a conference call.

 Because other states have rushed to the front of the line to get their primaries in earlier than ever before the Democrats and Republicans are looking to punish New Hampshire for upholding state law by holding the New Hampshire primary one week earlier than any other primary.

 State Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen isn’t going to roll over and play dead:

“If we’re being asked to choose between protecting and preserving the first-in-the-nation primary or being a delegate to the national convention, we’ll give up our delegates,” Cullen said. Cullen noted that “RNC rules are in conflict with state law, and we’re being punished for something we have no control over.

“But we will gladly pay the price. The New Hampshire primary isn’t about delegates. It’s about candidates proving their ability to win support across a broad electorate,” Cullen said.

 Now here is a man standing on principle and not caving to the pressure. He is standing up for what he believes in even if it costs the party delegates, and I admire him for that.

 Read the whole New Hampshire Union Leader article here.