Leading Nevada Republicans on Friday agreed to hold a presidential nominating caucus in Nevada on Feb. 7, 2008, two days after the "Giga-Tuesday" that is expected to narrow the race to become the party's nominee.

"It's a defensive move, but a necessary move," said Reno-based Republican political consultant and lobbyist Pete Ernaut, who spearheaded the effort to create a Republican caucus and who was named chairman of the caucus Friday.

"This makes Nevada a great battleground in the 2008 presidential race for both Republicans and Democrats," he said.

The new date requires approval by the executive board of the state Republican Party, which is scheduled to discuss the matter in a teleconference Wednesday. It does not require approval from the Republican National Committee.

The Feb. 7 date was agreed upon unanimously Friday in a conference call orchestrated by Ernaut, several people who participated said.

"Everyone was definitely in agreement that the date was a good one," said Mike Dayton, Gov. Jim Gibbons' chief of staff. "The idea was that assuming there's three or four candidates still fighting after February 5 ... then they can come to Nevada to get the next headline."

Also present on the call were Nevada's Republican National Committee representatives, Joe Brown and Beverly Willard; the national committee's regional director, Chris Carr; the state party's legal counsel, Rew Goodenow, and its acting chairman, Paul Willis; representatives of Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jon Porter; Rep. Dean Heller; Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki; and Republican consultants Greg Ferraro and Ryan Erwin.

"I still have to run it by my executive board on Wednesday, and I can't speak for them," Willis said Friday. "But I feel pretty confident" that the board will approve it.

"I think it'll be wonderful for Nevada to tap into the presidential candidates," Willis said. "It will energize the party, get more people involved. Republicans will be able to meet the Republican candidates one-on-one instead of just being a fly-by state."

Willis, who is a placeholder until the party can elect a new chairman, earlier had expressed skepticism about following the lead of the Democrats, who are holding a Nevada nominating caucus on Jan. 19. But he said he changed his mind when he was assured that a caucus wouldn't interfere with regularly scheduled party activities such as precinct meetings.

Ernaut said there was "not a great deal of science" to the selection of the date.

"We wanted to be as close to February 5 as we could, but on a stand-alone date so we're the center of attention for at least one day," he said.

Twenty states tentatively are scheduled to hold Republican presidential contests on or before Feb. 5. Under national Republican bylaws, states whose contests are before Feb. 5 lose half their delegates to the nominating convention, scheduled for Sept. 1, 2008, in Minneapolis.

Several big states, including California, New York and Texas, are proposing to move up to Feb. 5, earning that date the nickname "Giga-Tuesday."

The Democratic National Committee last year moved Nevada up into their own pre-Feb. 5 early window, making it the second state in the nation, after Iowa, to hold a nominating contest.

Nevada Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said there was a quantum difference between being second and being 21st or so.

"Nevada Democrats are going to have a much greater voice in selecting our nominee," she said. "We'll be second in the nation; they'll still be in the middle of the pack."

Nevada Republicans, she said, were "scrambling to play catch-up" to a Democratic effort that's been under way for nearly a year. And she said there would be a lot of catching up to do: the Democratic Party has hired several staffers, formed a caucus committee and a finance committee and done extensive planning, while the Republicans are not yet sure what shape their planned caucus will take.

One Republican operative who spoke on condition of anonymity expressed doubt that the party knew what it was getting into in terms of the complexity of the effort that will be required.

He also said the hopeful talk about Republican candidates shining a national spotlight on Nevada, as Democrats have done, was merely wishful thinking given the post-Feb. 5 timing.

"The size of the state dictates that we are not going to be a player in the nominating process unless we're put out very early," he said.

Other purported benefits are also unlikely, he said: "Getting voters motivated in February for a November election is pretty irrelevant. The only real benefit in my view is the ability to raise money for the state party."

Ernaut said his next move will be to start raising money -- no target has been set, but most expect the effort to cost $1 million to $2 million -- and to hire a caucus expert to organize the effort.

Porter supports the caucus but has not yet been asked to help with fundraising or other efforts, said his spokesman, Matt Leffingwell.

"We need to see what the next steps are, but obviously, we'll be helpful where we can be helpful," Leffingwell said. "We have not received those tasks as of now."

Gibbons also is looking forward to the increased attention, Dayton said.

"Nevada is a very good state for fundraising for candidates from both parties, but we want them also to come here to ask for the votes of the people of Nevada in the selection process," he said.

Dayton previously told the Review-Journal that there was pressure coming from the White House to move the caucus earlier, a notion the White House later denied.

Dayton said Friday that while there had been "informal" talk in Washington, D.C., about the matter, he "misspoke" in portraying it as direct White House involvement.