Delegate Count - Florida Presidential Primary Will Be Jan - Petersburg Times - 2012

By Adam C. Smith and Mary Ellen Klas , Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Posted: Sep 30, 2011 11:32 AM

TALLAHASSEE State leaders on Friday established Florida's 2012 presidential primary for Jan. 31, bucking countrywide get together principles and also making sure in which any other says will probably leapfrog Florida plus collection before elections.

The move seemed to be meant to guarantee that America's most important battleground state includes a major tone of voice around taking your Republican nomination, considerably as it managed with 2008 when Florida's late January primary correctly clinched this nomination for John McCain.

"It is actually more important with regard to says such as Florida not to possibly be for the returning end, nonetheless that they are about the front end of those primaries," reported past assert Sen. Al Lawson of Tallahassee, your representative in the most important committee that in the beginning needed Florida to line it is primary regarding Jan. 3.

"This is approximately getting one of the most Floridians involved with the initially probable time," claimed condition Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, an additional committee member.

Critics involving the decision, as well as several dominant Florida Republicans, claim the shift may possibly backfire along with basically diminish Florida's influence. That's mainly because beneath countrywide blowout rules, Florida will have got eliminate half with it's 99 delegates, so that it is less of a reward with regard to job hopefuls which don't want to commit your millions of pounds the idea costs to operate a statewide election while in the Sunshine State.

"The just thing other people will state will be of which going early might help Florida possibly be more significant. I might post that people shall be less considerable mainly because no prospect could possibly get push on the few delegates they will receive from Florida," said Republican National Committeeman Paul Senft of Haines City. "Further, just how much more major can we get as compared with web hosting the actual convention? .We will have little, in case any, effect on that delegate count number for virtually any candidate."

Nonsense, say followers with the quick primary. Delegates don't necessarily mean very much anyway.

"It is actually indisputable in which what exactly things most while in the earlier primary time is MOMENTUM, certainly not delegates,'' U.S. Rep. David Rivera wrote throughout an e-mail to gathering administrators Friday. "That is actually precisely why claims for instance Iowa in addition to New Hampshire, which have small delegates, matter. As within 2008, Florida will give you mind-boggling push definitely not due to the fact of our delegate count , nevertheless simply because Florida's vital purpose within the November election."

Rivera, 46, might not recall the actual 1976 primary when Gerald Ford lacked more than enough delegates for you to secure your nomination, and merely won immediately after a meeting ground deal with together with Ronald Reagan.

State Republicans had longed setting a new February primary, but they have been determined to get the actual sixth contest. When states like Colorado, Missouri, and Arizona timetabled February elections, Florida leap-frogged in order to January.