Florida officials on Friday followed through with plans to move the state’s Republican presidential primary up to Jan. 31, setting off a scramble by four other states to hold their nominating elections and caucuses before that.
The move upends the 2012 primary calendar for four states the Republican Party designated as the first to vote – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada – which now must move their contests forward from February to early January.
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Florida GOP officials said today that they weighed holding their primary on a range of dates from January 3 to March 6.
“So this compromise of Jan. 31 properly reflects the importance Florida will play on the national stage,” said Florida GOP spokesman Brian Hughes.
Party officials in the Sunshine State said they made the move to ensure that they remain fifth in line to vote and to prevent states like Colorado and Missouri, which have set February election dates, from cutting in front of them.
Florida’s size and swing-state status make it a pivotal state in the primary process and deserving of an early spot on the primary calendar, officials told The Washington Examiner.
But the decision, made by a GOP-dominated commission, violates a rule set by the Republican Party under former RNC Chairman Michael Steele that prohibits any state other than the four designated early states from holding a primary or caucus before March. At the time the rule was adopted, party officials wanted to stretch out the primary process in order to keep the public’s attention on GOP candidates. They wanted to avoid a repeat of 2008, when their nominee, Sen. John McCain, disappeared from the campaign trail after he locked up the nomination months before the Democratic contest was settled.
National Republican Party officials said today that Florida’s move would cost it half of its delegates to the GOP convention, which is to be held in Florida. But Florida GOP officials said their state’s delegate count matters less than their ability to influence the process with an early primary.
In 2008, the Florida state party also circumvented party rules and held their primary in January, playing a major role in locking up the nomination for McCain. But for Florida Democrats, who were forced to abide by the earlier date, it prompted a boycott by the Democratic candidates and a prolonged and divisive fight over penalties from the national party, thus undermining the state’s influence.
