COLUMBIA - Michigan's Republican Party wants to reshape the 2008 GOP presidential primary map by sending voters to the polls the same day as South Carolina.

But Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican Party chairman, said Monday the state doesn't want to share its primary date.

Michigan's proposal could knock South Carolina off center stage as the first primary after the New Hampshire primary and Iowa caucus.

The Michigan GOP is "now in the process of finalizing on the state level," party chairman Saul Anuzis said. The process includes moving the state's Democratic caucus to the same day as the GOP primary.

Dawson said there's no deal to share a primary date with Michigan. "They certainly would like there to be," he said. "Everybody in the country would like to be on the same date as South Carolina."

The state won't name its GOP primary date until the Republican National Committee's deadline in September 2007, Dawson said. The date will likely be sometime in early 2008.