As was outlined unanimously
by all the commentators on Fox News at 6PM – It makes no sense for
Florida to move up to January and blow up the Presidential Primary
Calendar. They all agree that we will be the first large and diverse
state to go and with our full complement of delegates we will be more
significant.
Since a story was leaked today saying
that we were going to hold our primary on January 31, 2012, my phone
and email have melted down. I, therefore, have been asked to do one
summary to help inform people about our position. The only thing others
will say is that going early will help Florida be more significant. I
would submit that we will be less significant because no candidate can
get momentum from the few delegates they will get from Florida.
Further, how much more significant can we get than hosting the
convention?
HERE FOLLOWS THE SUMMARY:
Our full allotment of delegates is: 99
After the three officers are removed our base becomes: 96
Cutting us as the penalty, we get only: 48
The rules require proportional allocation of delegates as follows –
Example:
- Candidate “A” gets 30% of the vote would get 14 delegates
- Candidate “B” gets 20% of the vote would get 10 delegates
- Candidate “C” gets 15% of the vote would get 7 delegates
- Candidate “D” gets 10% of the vote would get 5 delegates
And so on until the 48 delegates are gone.
The rules as adopted by the RPOF
do not define proportionality – thus the RNC will decide on our
definition of proportionality for us. The RNC is on record stating that
they will honor the rules of state parties if proportionality is
limited to state wide at large delegates. They indicated the
Congressional Districts could still be awarded on a winner-take-all
basis. The RPOF did not choose to define proportionality at all.
With the total delegates available in
the six or seven states that are attempting to go before Florida, there
will only be 212 delegates available. With a normal distribution of
delegates among the candidates it is probable that several candidates
will have 75 or 80 delegates if they are in the lead. Florida would be
in a position to really lock up the lead and momentum for a candidate
if it voted to go March 1,2,3,4 or 5 and still had its full allotment
of 99 delegates. There is no penalty provided in the RNC Rules for
those five days. It would be possible, with the proper definition of
proportionality for a candidate to get 60 to 80 of Florida’s delegates
and thus have a nice lead. (Again IF we were at full strength)
If Florida goes as early as is being
discussed (January 31), we will have little, if any, impact on the
delegate count for any candidate. Further, we will be slapping the RNC
in the face after they gave the convention to Florida and we have not
given the new rules a chance to see if they work.
Republicans have always been law
abiding people who obey the rules. If we don’t want to go by the rules
– if we want to be arrogant and only abide by the rules we like or
agree with - then we should consider another party. As long as we are a
member of the Republican Party we should go by their rules. If we want
to change things, we should do it through the proper channels and
procedures, not break the rules because we think we are better than
other states. I agree that we have better demographics and are more
representative than some of the four states that are authorized because
of tradition and history to go early. They are small and we will be
more meaningful if we are close to the front and at FULL STRENGTH.
If we break the rules again (this
will be two in a row) we will alienate the remainder of the country. We
have to demonstrate and prove that we can and will play by the rules
before we can ask to legally be allowed to go early to help the country
get our view (which we think will be a better view) of how the
candidates will do with large state which has the many different voter
groups that we have.
Republican National Committee
Co-Chair & Florida's National Committeewoman Sharon Day and I will
now be embarrassed for our state as we host the convention from the
back row and have a hotel 30/40 miles away. It will also be sad that we
will not have the guest passes we would normally have, even if the
Nominee does give us a few.
I hope that this information is
helpful. I wish our leadership had been more open to input and
suggestions from the RNC and our representatives.
Paul Senft
National Committeeman,
Republican Party of Florida
Sept. 28, 2011
Chairman
Tarkanian Statement on Florida’s Decision to Move Its Primary
LAS VEGAS, NV
– Amy Tarkanian, Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party, issued the
following release regarding Florida's decision to move the date of its
primary.
"Florida's decision to move its primary is disappointing and, frankly,
disrespectful of the other early primary states and the process as a
whole. Because the date of Nevada's caucus is, by rule, four days
after New Hampshire's, we will move Nevada's First in the West caucus
if the New Hampshire GOP moves theirs. No matter what, we will
not
allow this disruption to interfere with our goal of creating a
Presidential caucus that will be the pride of the western states.
This
situation gives Nevadans the opportunity to showcase our ability to
adapt and establish our state as a major player in national politics."