Portsmouth Herald
> FEB. 20 IS DATE FOR VOTE
> CLINTON AVOIDS RIVAL PRIMARY    
> By Steve Haberman, Herald Staff, 12/21/95
>     CONCORD - The New Hampshire primary will be held on Feb. 20, as
> originally scheduled, Secretary of State William Gardner announced yesterday.
>    The date had been in question because state law requires the primary to be
> held seven days before a ``similar'' primary in any other state. It was
> announced this week that Arizona will hold its primary on Feb. 27, in
> compliance with that requirement, but that still left Delaware, which
> announced earlier this year that its primary would be on Feb. 24.
>    The Clinton/Gore campaign announced yesterday it would not campaign in the
> Delaware primary, and that decision allowed Gardner to declare that state's
> primary as ``not similar'' to New Hampshire's.
>    ``The president decided he is not filing in Delaware,'' Gardner said.
> ``That means we're in compliance with our law.''
>    Portsmouth State Rep. James Splaine, who sponsored the primary time frame
> bill in 1975, agreed with Gardner's interpretation of the law.
>    ``I discussed the bill with Bill Gardner in 1975, and we put in the
> language about `similar primary' to allow him to make a call on what kind of
> primary would be similar,'' Splaine said. ``I agree with Bill that Delaware's
> primary is not similar because no major candidates are running in it.''
>    Had the president decided to run in the Delaware race, the repercussions
> could have been disastrous, Splaine said.
>    ``I would have hated to see the New Hampshire primary go into January,''
> he said.
>    Clinton/Gore Deputy Campaign Director Ann Lewis said the president decided
> to bypass the Delaware primary because it does not respect the Democratic
> Party rule that confirms New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation status and
> observes the state's seven-day rule.
>    ``After much discussion, the president decided he will not campaign
> actively for convention delegates in primaries that run outside party
> rules,'' Lewis said. ``We decided we needed one national principle and would
> support it.''
>    So far, only Texas Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, New Jersey Republican
> magazine publisher Malcolm ``Steve'' Forbes Jr., and Democrat Lyndon LaRouche
> have filed for the Delaware primary.
>    Jim Courtovich of the Gramm campaign said the president's decision makes
> no difference to Gramm's game plan. ``We have said all along that we will
> campaign in all the early primaries,'' he said.