COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) -- Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan had high praise Tuesday for the South Carolina Republican Party for staging the first GOP presidential debate in the South, but he also vowed to penalize the state party if it violates the official primary calendar.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Katon Dawson has said he will hold his state's primary on Feb. 2, 2008, three days before the RNC officially allows states -- other than Iowa and New Hampshire -- to begin holding primary contests. And Dawson has vowed to move his primary event even earlier to counter Florida's decision to move its primary contest to Jan. 29.

But Duncan said today that states holding these events prior to Feb. 5 will be penalized by losing 50 percent of their delegates to the Republican presidential nominating convention.

"I intend to enforce the rules," Duncan said, hours before Republican candidates meet for their second presidential debate of the 2008 race. And Duncan noted that if a state schedules its primary date outside the RNC window after September 2007 when the "Call to the Convention" is made, that state will lose 90 percent of its delegates.