South Carolina Dems say they won’t move primary

The South Carolina Democratic Party said Thursday it will not move its primary election date from January 29, even though the state GOP announced that it is moving its primary to January 19, triggering a widely expected but unprecedented early nominating schedule.

{mosads}“South Carolina Democrats are committed to following the rules set forth by the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee,” state party Chairwoman Carol Fowler said. “The date we’ve been given to have our presidential primary is January 29, 2008, and the penalties for changing it are severe. No matter what South Carolina Republicans do, we are committed to following the rules of our party.”

State GOP Chairman Katon Dawson announced Thursday that he was moving his party’s primary up two weeks from the original date of February 2.

That decision, which followed Florida’s move to move its primary to Jan. 29, has thrown an already front-loaded primary schedule into unknown territory that could lead to Iowa holding its caucuses in mid December.

Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Carrie Giddins said the state party is still going through with plans to hold its caucuses on Jan. 14, but one official said they are waiting and watching to see what New Hampshire does.

“The South Carolina Republicans won’t dictate what Iowa does,” Giddins said.