CHEYENNE - Move over, New Hampshire.

The Wyoming Republican Central Committee voted unanimously Saturday to have the party's presidential delegate selection next year on "the same date as the new Hampshire Republican Primary, whenever that may be."

New Hampshire's presidential primary is scheduled for January 2008.

Tom Sansonetti, a former Wyoming Republican Party chairman who presented the proposal to the committee, said Monday that once the information about Wyoming gets to the New Hampshire secretary of state, "the feathers will fly."

New Hampshire always wants to be first in the national presidential selection game, and the secretary of state is authorized to change the date if needed.

"That's the reason for the wording of the resolution," Sansonetti said Monday. "We've worded it in such a fashion that we're like Velcro. We're stuck right up against them. So where they go, we go."

"It will be the first Western primary for the Republican Party," Sansonetti said.

Delegates and alternates are selected at each county convention to attend the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 1-4, 2008.

In 2000, the Wyoming Republican county conventions were held on March 10 - after George W. Bush had already wrapped up the party's presidential nomination, said Sansonetti's proposal sent to GOP central committee members.

In 2004, there was no meaningful primary process, as the renomination of President Bush was assured.

Sansonetti said his next step is to talk to the officials of the Wyoming Democratic Party to see if they will move up their county conventions, too.

But Wyoming Democratic Party Chairman Mike Gierau said Monday evening that Democratic parties in all the states have agreed not to have delegate selections before Feb. 5. This is the "early window" reserved for Democratic presidential delegate selections in Idaho, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Gierau, who was in Washington, D.C., over the weekend and visited with national Democratic Party officials, said he believes Wyoming can get bonus delegates if it honors that window.

"I think the prevailing attitude is to stay where we are in March for the county conventions and have the state convention in May," he added.

Sansonetti's proposal to the GOP central committee listed six reasons the GOP delegate selection should be held on the same day as New Hampshire's GOP primary:

* Wyoming's 12 delegates and 12 alternates to the national convention offer the presidential candidates an alternative to doing well in the "make or break" atmosphere of New Hampshire.

* Wyoming's Republican Party is a good barometer of future electoral success. Moreover, while both states have about the same number of convention delegates, Wyoming is more Republican than New Hampshire, which is one of the new "blue states" and always had a contrarian bent.

* Because in Wyoming all 23 counties participate in choosing delegates or alternates, GOP presidential campaigns could pay unprecedented attention to Wyoming party members statewide if they want to.

* The state party could make some money if it sold lists of addresses and phone numbers of county precinct committee persons to each presidential campaign.

* An early Wyoming delegate selection process could lead to grassroots party building due to the increased importance of being a precinct committee person.