A guerrilla campaign to move up Nevada's Republican presidential nominating caucus to the same January 2008 date as the Democrats' probably will succeed.

"The rank and file have decided that if February 7 was a good idea, January 19 is a great idea," said Republican caucus Chairman Pete Ernaut, who agitated to move the GOP's Nevada contest from April to February. "I think it's great. I'm excited to see it happen."

The decision isn't official. It will have to be voted on by the party's Central Committee, scheduled to meet April 21 in Carson City.

But activist Chuck Muth, who advocated for the change in e-mail newsletters and a petition, said he believed the votes were there for the move.

"Everybody needs to know there is a better option" than Feb. 7, Muth said Thursday. "This is the only thing that makes sense."

The Democratic and Republican parties have different processes for setting their presidential nominating schedules, but both discourage states from having 2008 contests before Feb. 5 with a few exceptions.

Iowa and New Hampshire have traditionally had early competitions before the "Super Tuesday" date.

Last summer, the Democratic National Committee put a Nevada caucus between Iowa and New Hampshire, on Jan. 19, in an effort to diversify the process.

The Republican National Committee leaves it up to individual states when to have their contests, but bylaws say states that go before Feb. 5 lose half their delegates to the national nominating convention, including their RNC members.

Muth has been arguing that by the time a Feb. 7 contest rolled around, the nomination probably would be decided and that losing delegates to a largely symbolic national convention was a small price to pay.

Muth said Thursday he had the support of RNC members Joe Brown and Beverly Willard as well as former state Sen. Sue Lowden, who probably will be elected party chairwoman at next month's meeting.

Brown and Lowden did not return phone calls Thursday. Willard declined to comment.

Gov. Jim Gibbons also is prepared to get behind the move, a spokeswoman said.

After meeting with Muth Wednesday, "the governor has stated that if the executive committee of the Nevada Republican Party and other elected officials support moving it up to January 19th, then we would support their efforts," Melissa Subbotin said.

Muth expressed concern that U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., could still derail the move.

As newly minted president of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Ensign might not want to ruffle feathers within the party, he speculated.

A spokesman for Ensign declined to comment Thursday.

Ernaut said he was reviewing resumes of potential caucus directors and hoped to have one on board soon.

"They want to be competitive, and they don't want to give the Democrats an advantage, even of a few days," Ernaut said of the state's Republican faithful. "It just shows the true independent spirit of Nevadans once again.

"I don't think I've ever been prouder. It just means I need to raise a lot of money faster."