Nevada Republicans to meet about caucus date

The Ticket

Amid intense pressure from New Hampshire state officials, Nevada Republicans appear to be wavering a tad in their decision to hold the state's 2012 presidential caucus on Jan. 14.

A week after Nevada GOP chairwoman Amy Tarkanian insisted the party's selected caucus date was firm, she appeared less certain about the calendar in an interview with CNN, suggesting negotiations are still ongoing.

"It's not necessarily a different answer. It's just the more discussions you have the more you take into perspective," Tarkanian told CNN after Tuesday's GOP debate in Las Vegas. "You just have to weigh pros and cons--so, as of now, we are still on the 14th."

Her comments come ahead of a scheduled state GOP meeting on Saturday, where the back and forth over the caucus date is sure to come up. Some state Republicans are unhappy because Nevada will lose delegates to the national GOP convention in moving its primary date from February to January.

State Republicans are also starting to feel nervous over the prospect that their election could be deemed irrelevant amid threats of boycotts from some GOP contenders who are pushing Nevada to delay its date to accommodate New Hampshire's "first in the nation" primary.

"I think we can reach a mutual understanding where everybody will be happy," Heidi Smith, a national GOP committeewoman from Nevada, told the Des Moines Register's Jason Noble.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner and other state officials are pushing Nevada to delay its caucus to Jan. 17, which would allow the Granite State to set its primary date on Jan. 10th. If that doesn't happen, Gardner has threatened to move New Hampshire's 2012 primary to Dec. 6 or Dec. 13—citing a state law that requires a seven-day interval between the state's primary and a "similar election."

But as Politico's Reid Epstein notes, that move could potentially violate federal laws that require election officials to send out military ballots at least 45 days before an election.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire Republicans continue to question what role Mitt Romney's campaign played in pressing Nevada to move up its caucus date. As The Ticket previously reported, a Nevada Republican involved in scheduling the caucus told reporters the party had been lobbied by Romney's campaign to move up its vote in order to boost his campaign.

Romney officials haven't quite denied the allegation, and that's prompted some grumbling among New Hampshire Republicans. The charges of calendar-fixing from the Romney camp also provoked a scathing editorial in the Union Leader newspaper accusing the former Massachusetts governor of jockeying to sacrifice tradition for "political gain."

In a conference call with New Hampshire supporters ahead of Tuesday's debate, Romney made no mention of the allegation he meddled in the primary schedule—nor was he asked. But he reiterated his support for the state's first-in-the-nation primary, insisting he would take his "lead" from Gardner on the issue. At the same time, Romney stopped well short boycotting Nevada, as some Republicans have called on him to do.

"I respect the men and women of the state and also respect and unequivocally support New Hampshire's status as our country's first primary," Romney said, appearing to read from a written statement.

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