Sen. Judd Gregg has pulled out as a host of a fund-raiser tonight for the Republican State Committee because the featured guest, national GOP chairman Mike Duncan, has agreed that New Hampshire should be punished for holding its first-in-the-nation primary earlier than party rules allow.

Gregg, a lifelong Republican and the state's senior senator, attributed a key Republican National Committee panel's decision to strip the state of half its convention delegates to "rampant elitism" by "national leaders who are confined by Washington Beltway thought."

He compared Duncan to Democratic National Chair Howard Dean and said he will not co-host the event "in light of (Duncan's) attitude now."

Sen. John E. Sununu, who will seek reelection next year, was less critical of the RNC than Gregg and did not target Duncan, as Gregg did. Sununu will remain a host of the event, to be held at his parents' home.

Duncan on Monday announced that the RNC's executive committee had voted to recommend 12 of New Hampshire's 24 delegates to the GOP national convention in Minneapolis next summer be withheld because the state's leadoff primary will be held before Feb. 5, 2008, the earliest date allowed under party rules. Secretary of State William Gardner has said the primary will be held no later than Jan. 8 and may even be scheduled for December of this year.

"It's very important that our party uphold and enforce the rules that we unanimously voted into place at the Republican National Convention in 2004,'' Duncan said on Monday. Yesterday, RNC spokesman Danny Diaz added, "While we certainly respect and appreciate Senator Gregg's thoughts, the RNC has been charged with carrying out the rules unanimously adopted at the convention."

Today, Duncan is scheduled to visit the Hampton Falls home of former Gov. John H. Sununu and his wife Nancy, to keynote a $250-a-couple fund-raiser for the state GOP.

Gregg said yesterday he would not have made it to the event, anyway, due to Senate floor conflicts, but added, in a telephone interview, "The guy's coming to New Hampshire, and I said I'd be happy to co-sponsor his meeting. But I don't want to sponsor his meeting in light of his attitude now.

"If he wants to come to New Hampshire, fine," Gregg said. "But he should come to New Hampshire and find out why the New Hampshire primary is important and not come to New Hampshire having said that the New Hampshire primary is going to be diluted."

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The New Hampshire Union Leader incorrectly reported yesterday the fund-raiser would be for Sen. Sununu. In fact, the state party is the beneficiary, while Gregg and Sen. Sununu are listed on the invitations as hosts along with Sununu's parents, state GOP chair Fergus Cullen, vice chair Wayne MacDonald, RNC member Sean Mahoney, former Ambassador Joseph Petrone, former state Senate President Edward Dupont, businessman Ray Pinard and his wife, Charon, and state Rep. Stephen Stepanek.

Gregg, asked if the state party should cancel the fund-raiser, said, "That's up to them. I think they should probably go forward, I guess. I don't know. The party needs the money, obviously."

Cullen said an "apt description" of the controversy is "a disagreement among friends. It's nothing personal. We have a party rule in conflict with a state law and it doesn't have anything to do with the chairman in any way. We're excited he's coming and it's an honor for us to host him."

Gregg said Cullen "is taking the right position for a state party chairman" and "does a superb job."

But the senator blasted the RNC and Duncan, saying, "It makes no sense that the only opportunity that someone who is a low visibility, qualified, capable person and doesn't have the money or is anointed by the talking heads in Washington, that their only opportunity to compete would be in any way diluted as a starting point in the presidential process."

He said national party leaders, "like Mr. Duncan," should embrace the state's grass roots campaigning tradition rather than "attempting to undermine" it.

"The best approach would have been to say nothing on this issue," Gregg said. "That would have been the better part of discretion by the leader of the party if he'd been thinking. It doesn't make it easier for us to win next November. It brings into play an issue that it's not necessary for us to have to deal with because the Democrats continue to be the real problem here."

Gregg said the national Democrats initiated the rush to the front of the nominating calendar by a host of states by trying to dictate order of the early nominating calendar.

"New Hampshire will not submit to the (Democratic National Chairman) Howard Dean approach to elections," said Gregg. "Rather than working to ensure the traditional role of New Hampshire in presidential politics, Chairman Duncan appears to be dancing to the Dean two-step."

Gregg said he had spoken with former RNC general chairman Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida about the issue, "and I thought I'd convinced him of our view," but Martinez resigned during the past weekend. "I know he was very concerned about the way Florida was being treated." Florida was also among the five states recommended for sanctions.

Sen. Sununu did not target Duncan personally, saying in a prepared statement, "Political operatives who try to force their own schedule on our presidential primary fail to understand that New Hampshire's person-to-person approach benefits the entire country."

He said Gardner will set the primary date "when he's good and ready."

Sununu's father, the former governor, said the fund-raiser will go forward, adding, "We're just trying to help the state party raise money."

He said, "The problem is the national committee is taking action on the overall issue of primary timing a bit late. I understand that in an odd way what they're trying to do is in New Hampshire's interest in the long run. They are trying to make states around the country not start playing this game of early scheduling. I imagine that if they're going to sanction other states, they have to sanction all states. I understand the difficulty they are in."

State Democratic Chair Raymond Buckley said, "Just when it looked like it couldn't get worse for the NH GOP, it has." He said the state GOP showed it is "desperate for money" by inviting someone to a fund-raiser who opposes New Hampshire's leadoff primary.

Although Dean has backed downsizing New Hampshire's important role in the nominating process, Buckley noted that national Democratic rules continue to "specifically call for New Hampshire to be the first-in-the-nation primary. The DNC is severely sanctioning Florida and Michigan to protect our primary. The RNC and the New Hampshire Republicans have done nothing to protect New Hampshire's primary."