Iowa has announced it intends to hold its caucus on Jan. 3, 2012.

“Thank God it’s not in December,” said Steffen Schmidt, a professor of Political Sciences. 

Schmidt said that if would be held in December it would really be a problem.

“People go away for the holidays…it’s not a perfect time to have a caucus,” he said.

Schmidt said the second problem with an early caucus is that it means the candidates are going to have at least a month less time to organize their campaigns.

“That’s pretty tough, especially the ones who don’t have large campaign funds,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said he knows Neil Gardner, New Hampshire’s secretary of state, and that Gardner works with Iowa on setting up dates.

Schmidt said ideally New Hampshire’s primary will be one week after the Iowa Caucus, and Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t rivals in that respect.

Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn said in a press release on Sept. 30 that Iowa would not choose a caucus date until New Hampshire set a date for the primary, which hasn’t been announced yet.

“Regarding the timing of the First in the Nation Iowa Caucuses, Iowa will remain first. Consistent with tradition, the final Iowa Caucus date will be announced once New Hampshire sets the date of its First in the Nation Primary,” Strawn said.

In the same release, Strawn reacted to Florida moving its primary to Jan. 31.

“The arrogance shown by Florida’s elected leadership is disappointing, but not surprising. Equally troubling is to see this petulant behavior rewarded with our national convention. The consequences of Florida’s intransigence must be swift and severe, including the refusal by the RNC to credential or seat any member of Florida’s presidential primary date commission at the 2012 RNC convention in Tampa,” Strawn said in the release.

Keep following the Iowa State Daily as this story develops.