Florida's primary moved up to January 29

[DoubleEdgeSword]

Florida moves up primary, shakes up election
POSTED: 3:35 p.m. EDT, May 21, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) -- Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary to January 29 and shaking up the race by bypassing a dozen other states set for February 5.

The move puts Florida's primary, which had been scheduled for March, behind only the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Florida has by far the largest population of any of the early voting states set for January and is the most expensive in which to campaign, giving well-funded candidates an even greater advantage and possibly drawing attention away from the smaller states.

"This is going to require the serious candidates to spend very, very large amounts of money and time in Florida," said Merle Black, a politics professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "If you can't compete in Florida, that's going to be a sign that you're not a serious contender."

Crist, a Republican, and other state GOP leaders have argued Florida's diversity and size merit more influence in deciding the nation's leadership. The delegate-rich state decided the disputed 2000 presidential election.

"We may not be the first in the nation, but we're at the forefront," Crist said after signing the bill. "We will be the first megastate to weigh in on the next leader of the free world."

Florida's early election could also have implications in the February 5 primaries scheduled in a dozen other states, including New York and California.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/21/florida.primary.ap/index.html

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In unrelated news, but also of importance, Crist recently signed a bill requiring elementary schools to schedule 2.5 hours per week for physical education.

[Richard Tafoya]

From the DNC side of the fence, this is also cause for great drama:

LA Times:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/05/21/MNGK1PUJIU1.DTL

Stung by Florida's decision, national Democratic officials have vowed to enforce party rules that strip delegates from any state that moves too early in the calendar, and also from candidates who campaign in those states. The penalties were meant to stop states from continually leapfrogging each other in a race to be among the first to vote.

As things stand now, Clinton, Obama and other prominent contenders might not be eligible to win any Florida delegates, although the state offers as much as 10 percent of the total needed to win the Democratic nomination. Under one scenario, it could turn out that no Democratic candidate gets any Florida delegates.

...

It was not supposed to be this way. To prevent this very problem -- and to protect the practice of retail politicking in the traditional early-voting states -- Dean and other party leaders established a nationwide schedule for primaries and caucuses, starting in January 2008. They designated Iowa as the first caucus state, along with newcomer Nevada. New Hampshire and South Carolina were approved for primaries soon afterward.

The Democratic National Committee, trying to keep the selection process from being too front-loaded and thus stacked against candidates with smaller campaign war chests, also adopted a rule saying no other state could hold a primary before Feb. 5.

But Republicans in the Florida legislature -- supported by many Democrats -- pushed through a measure setting Jan. 29 as the date for their state's presidential primary. Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill.

If that date holds for picking Florida's Democratic delegates, party penalties for violating its rules would cut Florida's delegation by more than half, to 92 votes. But most important, the rules also would take away any delegates won by candidates who campaigned or raised funds in the state.

Tension over the 2008 calendar is especially high because, for the first time in a half-century, there are competitive primaries in both parties. The GOP, which also has rules designed to keep order in the nominating process, plans to strip Florida of about half its delegates to the national convention if the early primary is held. But the DNC rules go much further.