How frustrating that there’s still an ongoing stare-down between Florida and the national Republican and Democratic parties about primary dates. There are even GOPster officials who want to pull next year’s national convention here in Tampa if Florida doesn’t back off and accept its rubber-stamp status in the nominating process. Put it this way: Any candidate needs Florida to be elected president, but Florida, more often than not, is relegated to playing a bit role in nominating one. Makes less sense than a Michelle Bachman-for-president rationale. You’d have to be “Floriduh” to accept this exercise in political irrelevance.
Frankly, it’s in the enlightened self-interest of the political parties, not just leverage-conscious Florida, to have the Sunshine State go early. Especially for the non-incumbent Republicans. And if other states demand to follow suit, they can simply be told by the RNC adults in charge that they are not Florida–for all the manifestly obvious reasons.
Would a responsible national party really want, as Sen. Marco Rubio–ironically–pointed out recently, to chance nominating someone who might not be “palatable” in Florida? Florida is the indispensible swing state that any presidential nominee must have. “As goes the I-4 corridor, so goes the country” is more than hyperbolic sloganeering. An early Florida primary would be meaningfully important–not symbolically noteworthy. Florida is a political mettle-detector and national barometer–not a quadrennial tradition more akin to a political Ground Hog’s Day.
This state is demographically representative of the country. Ethnically, racially and politically. Something neither Iowa nor New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation caucus and primary, respectively, are. Nor are we sufficiently skewed that we qualify as minority window-dressing–such as South Carolina and Nevada.