Concord – Three Republican presidential hopefuls filed yesterday as candidates in the New Hampshire primary.

Sen. John McCain, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani and Texas Congressman Ron Paul all signed up and paid their $1,000 fee.

All said they side with New Hampshire in its fight to retain its first-in-the-nation primary. Secretary of State William Gardner has not set a date for the election yet.

Arriving first at the State House just after 9 a.m., McCain pledged, "I will do everything in my power to protect the status of New Hampshire as first in the nation."

McCain, 71, is a four-term U.S. senator from Arizona and a U.S. Navy veteran of the Vietnam War. He won the New Hampshire primary in 2000, but lost the nomination to President Bush. He joked about his return to the state by signing a commemorative poster, "He's B-a-a-ack."

Giuliani said he has long supported the state's fight to preserve its lead-off primary election status, but he would not be drawn into intra-party disputes over delegates and penalties.

"If you concentrate on that as a presidential candidate, you just get caught in the weeds," he said after filing at noon.

Giuliani, 63, is a former federal prosecutor and two-term mayor of New York City. He was in the last few months of his second mayoral term when 9/11 terror attacks hit the city. His poster inscription read "God Bless America."

Paul said he thinks the Republican National Committee should leave the state alone. The RNC decided Monday to strip New Hampshire of half its delegates to the national convention next summer.

"I think they should stay out of it. New Hampshire should do what it wants to do," Paul said.

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Paul, 72, is a retired doctor now serving his 10th term in Congress.

He runs outside the GOP mainstream, opposing the war in Iraq and accusing his party of losing its way on foreign affairs and the economy. He said runaway spending on military and social programs is destroying the country's economy by running down the value of its currency.

"Personal liberty, war and economic liberty, they're all coming to a head in this country," Paul said. He signed the poster, "For Liberty."

McCain and Giuliani said the U.S. needs to continue its fighting in Iraq as part of a broader war on terror.

McCain argued that he holds the upper hand over Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on national security issues. He said he's been helping shape national security policy since he entered Congress in 1980.

Giuliani answered that his years in New York and in Washington, with the Reagan Administration Justice Department, give him solid security credentials.

McCain criticized the current front-loaded primary election process that will determine party nominees more than six months before conventions are held.

If Republican and Democratic leaders can't work out a better calendar, he said, "then I think you're going to have to have Congressional action. "¦ This system is badly broken and it's got to be fixed."

McCain praised Gardner for his "valiant efforts" to keep New Hampshire's primary as the nation's first.

He said he thinks most Americans side with New Hampshire in the dispute because they value the contribution of the state's voters to the selection process.

Other candidates filing for the primary yesterday were Randy Crow, Democrat from Kelly N.C.; Henry Hewes, (D) New York City businessman; and Albert Howard, (R), of Ann Arbor, Mich.

Lesser known candidates who filed on Monday were Tom Koos, (D), Woodside, Calif., and H. Neal Fendig, (R), St. Simons Island, Ga.