Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: 240 is Back on February 20, 2011, 01:40:57 AM
-
Interesting.... which would-be GOP candidate would potentially do best in a high hispanic, broke Obama & Rubio state? Getting that first win is a big deal...
A deepening standoff between national Republicans and top party leaders in Florida has the potential to blow up the 2012 presidential primary calendar — and do lasting damage to the GOP in the nation’s largest swing state.
At issue is the early date of Florida’s presidential primary election, currently set for Jan. 31, 2012. As of right now, it’s the first primary scheduled.
That’s in blatant violation of Republican and Democratic National Committee rules, which say only four states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada – can hold primary elections before the beginning of March.
But despite the pleas of GOP officials in Washington, the Republican leaders of Florida’s legislature say they have no intention of shifting the date in a way that could diminish the Sunshine State’s influence in 2012. Key officials signaled they would accept nothing less than going fifth on the primary calendar — not leapfrogging the four early states, but clearly marked off from the other 45.
“Florida’s the most important presidential state and we’d like to keep our current position as one of the early states,” said state Senate President Mike Haridopolos, who called Florida “the first so-called ‘megastate’ in the presidential race.”
“We liked our position last time, following South Carolina,” he explained.
There’s good reason for Republicans to covet that spot: In 2008, Arizona Sen. John McCain dealt a crippling blow to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by defeating him in Florida. A week later, the Super Tuesday primary contests ensured McCain would end up as the Republican nominee.
Having played such a powerful role in the primaries last time, Florida Republicans aren’t eager to return to the ranks of states with little influence over the GOP nomination.
The quadrennial ritual of presidential primary calendar jockeying has become a familiar practice as states attempt to increase their influence over the nominating process — almost invariably in vain. But Florida is negotiating from an unusually strong position.
Thanks to the last round of census data, Florida is now by far the country’s largest swing state, with 29 electoral votes. The closest runners-up are Pennsylvania, with 20, and Ohio, with 18. That alone could make it dangerous for Republicans to penalize Florida for holding an out-of-order primary.
What’s more, national Republicans are holding their 2012 convention in Tampa, so any penalty on Florida’s convention delegation would be particularly embarrassing.
Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon said the risk of being penalized at the 2012 convention was “outweighed in my mind by the advantage of having Florida earlier in the cycle.”
“Florida is one of the most, if not the most demographically, economically and geographically diverse states in the country and is soon to be the third most populous state,” Cannon argued. “We’re not playing chicken with anyone. I just think it is more important that Florida be early in that dialogue than that we focus on the number of delegates at the party convention.”
Game of chicken or not, the RNC appears just as determined to hold the line on the primary calendar as Florida Republicans are to change it.
“The RNC reached an agreement with the DNC that is the best way forward for our country’s presidential nomination process,” said RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski. “We will continue to provide assistance to individual states to ensure they are in line with the rules.”
Florida’s Republican legislative leaders aren’t the only ones foursquare behind the early primary. Their claim is supported by one of the GOP’s top rising stars, Sen. Marco Rubio — an oft-mentioned prospect for the vice presidential nomination in 2012.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49832.html#ixzz1EUTFi6aQ
-
These primaries should all be held on one day.
-
These primaries should all be held on one day.
i've never thought about it... but that's a darn good idea.
Of course if that were teh case, we would probably have seen winners like Rudy Guiliani and howard Dean in recent years. Things change when you don't have months of scandal potential, etc.