PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island is rarely at the center of the of the presidential nominating process, a situation that — barring major surprises in the early caucuses and primaries — is not likely to change in 2008 for either Republicans or Democrats.

With Rhode Island’s presidential primary slated for March 4, 2008, both the state Democratic and Republican parties are establishing rules for choosing delegates. Those delegates will then vote for each party’s presidential candidates at next summer’s conventions, which the GOP will hold in Minneapolis and the Democrats in Denver.

In a change from recent presidential cycles, Rhode Island Republicans will choose delegates based on proportional representation, which Democrats have used for many years to allocate delegates among presidential aspirants.

Previously Republicans apportioned delegates on a winner-take-all basis; the presidential candidate who won the state’s primary received all of the delegates. In 2008, the delegates will be given proportionally to candidates who gain votes.

As is the case with the Democrats, the Republicans will have a 15 percent threshold for a presidential candidate to be allotted a delegate. “Like a lot of states we did have winner-take-all and now we are moving to a proportional system,” says Giovanni Cicione, Republican state chairman.

Rhode Island will send 21 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Three delegates have automatic seats — Cicione, the state chairman, and the state’s two Republican National Committee members — Eileen Slocum, of Newport, and Robert Manning, of Charlestown. The other delegates will be chosen by voters in the state’s two congressional districts.

The Republican State Central Committee will meet in Barrington on Thursday to vote on the delegate selection plan, Ciccone said.

Democrats will send 32 delegates to the Denver convention. Democrats have more automatic spots than the GOP. Among the automatic delegates are William Lynch, state party chairman, Frank Montanaro, president of the state AFL-CIO and the Democratic National Committeeman, and Edna O’Neill Mattson, the Democratic National Committeewoman.

Other leading Democrats have automatic spots virtue of their elected offices, such as Sen. Jack Reed and the state’s two U.S. representatives, Patrick Kennedy and James R. Langevin. And other Democratic officeholders have delegate slots because of their positions in national associations of Democratic elected officials, including Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline.

As is the case with Republicans, Democrats allocate delegates to presidential candidates who garner at least 15 percent of the March primary vote. The Democratic State Committee is slated to vote on a delegate selection plan on Aug. 13.

The secretary of state’s office is scheduled to establish guidelines for candidates seeking to run for delegate by the end of the summer, says Christopher Barnett, spokesman for Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis.

If past is prologue, Rhode Island can expect scant attention from the national candidates. In part, this is due to the state’s small population and delegate numbers, but it is also a function of the calendar.

Even small states receive many visits of presidential candidates and see feverish campaign activity — but only if they are early in the primary season. Thus, New Hampshire, which has about the same population as Rhode Island, has already had more than 200 visits by Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls because the Granite State holds the leadoff primary, in January.

At this point, four states appear to have locked up the early dates on the Democratic side — Iowa, which holds its caucus on Jan. 14; Nevada, another caucus state, slated for Jan. 19; New Hampshire’s Jan. 22 primary, and South Carolina’s primary on Jan. 29.

The GOP will begin with the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, then move to South Carolina for a Feb. 2 primary.

The schedule is somewhat fluid because New Hampshire has a state law that requires its event to be held first. The New Hampshire date is officially set by New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner, who over the years has zealously protected his state’s leadoff primary status.

“The only way we’ll get attention is if Hillary [Rodham Clinton] and [Barack] Obama fight it out in later primaries,” said William Lynch. “And nobody really expects that to happen.”

On the Republican side, national public opinion surveys show a much more muddled race. Cicione said the large number of candidates could put Rhode Island in play and make for an exciting national convention.

“It could be like one of the old-time conventions of the 1930s, a real knock-down drag-out affair,” he said.

Neither party has had much in the way of convention drama in recent years. Most conventions merely ratify choices voters have made in caucuses and primaries.

The last time Republicans held a convention with sharp competition was in 1976, when Ronald Reagan and then-President Gerald Ford battled for the nomination. The last contested Democratic convention was in 1960, when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson emerged as the combatants, until a deal was brokered to put Johnson on the ticket as JFK’s vice presidential candidate.

smackay@projo.com