PHILADELPHIA - New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary dodged what could have been a fatal blow yesterday when the rules committee of the Republican convention killed a plan to let the smallest states hold their presidential primaries first.
The so-called Delaware plan would not have provided an exemption for New Hampshire to hold its primary before any other state, the role it has traditionally played since 1952.
Political operatives for Texas Governor George W. Bush spread the word yesterday that members of the rules committee should quash the plan. But their reasoning had more to do with maintaining harmony at the convention than with preserving New Hampshire's status.
Although Bush signed a pledge to protect New Hampshire's status, his campaign never mentioned the peril in which the Delaware plan would place the state.
''The issue of New Hampshire going first hasn't come up,'' said Charles R. Black Jr., a Bush adviser monitoring the debate over the nominating process.
Thomas D. Rath, a member of the rules committee from New Hampshire, said: ''No one has said to me that New Hampshire is the problem. It's what happens after the front-loading.''
The Bush camp moved to stop the Delaware plan when delegates from larger states, such as New York and California, threatened to launch a floor flight when the convention opens Monday because they oppose letting the smaller states steal the limelight. Bush officials want the convention to present a unified face.
Representatives of the Bush campaign also noted that if the Republicans adopted a plan to avoid front-loading the primaries, the Democrats would not, leading to worries that Democrats would get a head start on the general election campaign.
''They could finish in March, be raising money and be ready to pounce on us,'' said Black.
In New Hampshire, Governor Jeanne Shaheen said the Republican National Committee should do what the Democratic National Committee has done, which is to carve an exemption into its nominating rules for New Hampshire and for Iowa, which holds the nation's first caucuses.
''Until that is done, New Hampshire is at risk,'' Shaheen said. ''George Bush said he would support keeping New Hampshire first. I certainly hope he will weigh in about doing that at the convention.''
But Steve Duprey, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said there is no sign that Bush plans to exact retribution against the state. Bush lost the Feb. 2 primary to Arizona Senator John S. McCain by 19 points.
''He really means it when he said, `Look, it was a wake-up call and it made me a better candidate,''' said Duprey, who visited with Bush in Maine recently. ''There's no resentment at all.''
