CONCORD, N.H. – In a gold-domed state Capitol graced with marble floors, brass chandeliers and oil portraits of American statesmen, New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner oversees elections from an office not much bigger than a walk-in closet, decorated with a cheap wall calendar and a small coat rack.

“It’s the same as when I got here in 1976,” said Gardner, who has been in office longer than the last 12 Florida secretaries of state. “Same desk. Same chair.”

Yet he’s one of the most powerful men in presidential politics, with the sole authority to schedule the nation’s first primary. As campaigns hedge final decisions on television advertising and candidate schedules, and as Florida and other big states muscle their way to the front of the calendar, Gardner refuses to flinch.

December not ruled out

“We haven’t completely ruled out December,” he said matter-of-factly.

As zealously as he guards New Hampshire’s lead position, Gardner laments the national parties’ decisions to punish Florida for encroaching on its primary turf. Unlike what happened in the other early states, New Hampshire officials did not endorse the pledge that bans Democratic candidates from campaigning in Florida.

“I feel really badly about it,” Gardner said. “I don’t have any ill will toward Florida.”

Gardner was president of the National Association of Secretaries of State when Florida elected one of its most famous members, Katherine Harris, in 1998. “I liked her,” said Gardner, a Democrat who has been reelected 16 times by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

But while Harris co-chaired George W. Bush’s Florida campaign in 2000, Gardner said a New Hampshire election chief would never pick sides.

“Bill’s sole allegiance is to New Hampshire’s primacy – not to his party,” said Dale Kuehne, founding director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H..

Hanging on his words

Although his every murmur about the primary calendar is immediately parsed, Gardner volunteered on his day off to give a tour of his hometown of Manchester. The route began at the Merrimack Restaurant, where framed pictures of presidents and also-rans adorn the wood-paneled walls. Next, the old Carpenter Hotel, where John F. Kennedy opened his 1960 campaign headquarters.

Last stop: the Manchester Union-Leader, where Sen. Edward Muskie’s 1972 presidential bid was derailed when he was reported as having cried as he denounced the newspaper’s editor from a flatbed truck.

Gardner also delights in reading aloud from a historical tome published in 1906 that details New Hampshire’s political quirks. Anyone with a dream and $1,000 can get on the state’s primary ballot.

“It’s the only place they can really go if they want to run for president,” Gardner said. “It’s a place to have a chance.”