By wplog

Published Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007 | 4:58 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Oct. 30, 2008 | 2:14 p.m.

So New Hampshire today finally weighed in on its caucus date, pushing Nevada to No. 3 on the Democratic nomination calendar.

New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said this afternoon that the Granite State will hold its presidential primaries on Jan. 8, five days after the Iowa caucuses. The Nevada caucuses -- both Democratic and Republican -- will be held Jan. 19.

The date of the New Hampshire primary -- and its effect on the nomination calendar -- had been the subject of much hand wringing, nationally and locally. Both the campaigns and the media cited the uncertainty in the calendar as the chief reason for their reluctance — at least, at first — to play here.

Nevada had been given the No. 2 slot last year to inject some diversity into the process. We tackled that argument back in February. But, because New Hampshire state law says the state must hold its primary at least a week before any similar contest and gives the secretary of state the power to schedule it, political pundits had long predicted Nevada would end up third.

Ironically, Nevada's stock may have risen as a result. There will now be an 11-day window after New Hampshire where the campaigns and the national media will likely descend on the Silver State in a final blitz. The event could be even more important if Iowa and New Hampshire produce two separate winners, making Nevada a potential tie-breaker.

In Iowa, the top three candidates are locked in a close battle, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. Obama leads with support from 30 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, compared to Clinton, who garners

26 percent, and Edwards, who gets 22 percent. The poll's margin of error is plus/minus 4 percentage points.

In New Hampshire, the race is tightening as well. A CNN/WMUR poll this week found Clinton's 23-point lead from September slip to 14 points, with Obama in second place with 22 percent support.

Clinton is on her safest ground in Nevada, where a Reno Gazette-Journal poll this week found her with a 25-point lead over Obama, with Edwards in third place.

But all the campaigns know that what happens in those first two states will affect the way Nevadans see the race on Jan. 19.

One wild card is Michigan, whose Supreme Court also declared today that the state's primary can go forward on Jan. 15. Still, the Democratic candidates signed a pledge to campaign only in the four early-voting states sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- and Barack Obama, John Edwards, Joe Biden and Bill Richardson pulled their names from the state's primary ballot.

Legislation is now being considered in the Michigan Legislature to restore their names to the ballot, but Democrats are unlikely to campaign there because of DNC rules that penalize states who move ahead by stripping them of all their delegates to the Democratic National Convention.