New York moves primary to Feb. 5

Gov. Eliot Spitzer signed legislation Monday moving New York’s primary up a month to Feb. 5, a shift that will favor native son and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and transplanted native daughter Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

New York joins a big-state stampede to the front of the primary calendar, but the move could have an unintended effect, making the earlier primary and caucus states -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- even more important, some analysts say.

“This is all creating the opposite of what New York and the other big states want to do,” said Joe Trippi, who piloted Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign. “Whoever wins New Hampshire or Iowa or Nevada will have momentum going into Feb. 5 and they’ll win many of the big states on that day. It will amplify the importance of the early states and shorten the race. Candidates won’t have time to recover.”

Democrats in the New York Legislature, spurred on by the Clinton camp, said the move was necessary to keep the state relevant.

“Moving the primary date to February, we will help secure New York’s large and diverse population an influential voice in selecting the 2008 presidential nominees,” Spitzer said in Albany.

Neither Clinton nor Giuliani, a Republican, would comment on the move.