Remember all that principled posturing that accompanied the rationale for moving up the Florida presidential primary? How dare the political parties relegate Florida, the mega, election-impacting–if not determining–swing state to possible rubber-stamp status? How dare they grant states that are not demographically reflective of America a priority position on the primary calendar? A position that gives them–at Florida’s expense–disproportionate influence in the process, especially during the momentum-building early going.
And Florida was, of course, penalized with delegate devaluation. And more punishment would be in store in 2016 should the state with the convention’s third largest delegation not reverse course.
But reversal happened. Florida has, indeed, relented and will not hold a primary in January or early February next time around. More like early March. The provision was furtively tucked into the election-reform bill at the last minute.
This now means that Florida Republicans retain all 99 convention delegates. And what a coincidence: If Sen. Marco Rubio is in the 2016 hunt, as is foreseen in most GOPster circles, he wouldn’t be cheated out of any Florida convention votes. This, then, is what it finally took for Florida to fall back in line–with Rubio weighing in on the side of moving the primary back. And how ironic that former Florida House Speaker Rubio was a key catalyst in moving up the primary back in 2008.
And come to think of it, how principled that a white, rural caucus state that’s not particularly representative of the rest of the country still gets to go first. American exceptionalism takes many forms, including the prominently positioned, presidential-primary silo vote.