Date of N.H. primary rests with one man

updated 11:10 a.m. ET Oct. 10, 2007

CONCORD, N.H. - The political heat on William Gardner - the single official with the most control over the presidential primary calendar - has never been hotter.

Gardner's temperature, however, remains cool.

Gardner is the 58-year-old New Hampshire secretary of state, a man who loves history and has been the jealous keeper of his state's first-in-the-nation primary for over three decades.

National party leaders are doing a slow burn waiting for Gardner to schedule a date for the 2008 primary. So are other states' officials who will need to adjust accordingly.

Gardner knows they're waiting, but won't make his move until he's ready. He has said New Hampshire's date can be no later than Jan. 8, but he doesn't give them a clue as to whether he will do the unthinkable - move his state's contest into this year.

Pressure starts to mount
In New Hampshire, where pride in the state's first-primary status is close to a religion, there has been widespread support for Gardner. But even some Granite State political leaders are beginning to express concern.

"If he makes the wrong decision, that's the end of the primary," says Kathy Sullivan, who stepped down this spring as state Democratic chairwoman. "If he makes the right decision, great, we're good for another four years."

In an interview with The Associated Press, the soft-spoken Gardner said he couldn't say when he'll set the date since some other states haven't made their decisions. Gardner, by state law, must make New Hampshire first.

Not everyone is buying that.

"I think he's being terribly irresponsible to be waiting so long to do what he's going to do. I think he's just trying to be cute," says Don Fowler, a former national Democratic chairman. "I don't see why he's waiting. He knows what his law is, and if he sets his date and someone trumps him, he can change again."

Said former RNC chairman Rich Bond: "New Hampshire law and perennial sucking up to New Hampshire by the presidential candidates means that he has a free hand in determining when New Hampshire's primary occurs in the process."

Living with himself
Gardner, who sees his mission as fending off other states every four years, has never changed a primary date after setting it and doesn't intend to with this primary, his ninth.

The state law requires him to pick a date a week before any "similar election," giving him, by design, enormous flexibility compared with states where parties or legislators set dates and rules. He didn't schedule the 1996 primary - for Feb. 20 - until Dec. 20, 1995.

Gardner has felt pressure in other years, most recently in 2000, when he shocked the political world by scheduling the primary a week earlier than anyone expected, just one day after Iowa's already scheduled leadoff presidential caucuses. He soon found himself at a meeting with then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and a half-dozen other officials.

"One by one, they told me why it was the wrong date. The last one to speak was the governor," he recalled.

Gardner wouldn't budge, and recalls explaining why: If he gave in and it was wrong, "I have to live with myself and know I did not have the guts to do what I thought was right."

Iowa moved its date.

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