Currently, Florida is scheduled to hold its primary on Tuesday, January 31. But that won't work for the Republican National Committee, and most high ranking Florida Republicans understand that, as RNC Chairman Reince Prlebus has said there would be penalties apportioned if the state were not to move that date (In 2008 the DNC warned of penalties - and lived up to them - as neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton ever campaigned before the late January primary).
Currently, the Iowa caucuses are scheduled for February 6 - nearly a month later than in 2008. New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina are to follow.
The next date the RNC has made available for all of the other states who want to get in as early as possible is March 6. But Page reports in USA Today that Haridopolos and GOP state Chairman Dave Bitner "are floating the idea of setting the primary March 1,2 or 3." That would be sort of sandwich vote, after those first four states get dibs, but before every other state joins in a Super Tuesday type of vote like happened in 2008.
A glance at the calendar shows that March 1 is a Thursday, the 2nd a Friday and the 3rd a Saturday, quite different than the traditional Tuesday Election Days that Floridians are used to .
The committee who will decide the date apparently has yet to be named, so there doesn't promise to be any official announcement on this for some time to come.
Although it gets a bit annoying to hear those in the Florida political world boast about how important the Sunshine State is in deciding who the next president will be, it's a fact of life that the state's 29 electoral votes are by far the biggest prize available that as this juncture appears up for grabs in November of 2012.
Florida's Presidential Primary next winter also figures to be an important event in deciding who the GOP will ultimately nominate to run against Barack Obama. But when that day will be is a total unknown at this point.
In USA Today, a cover story written by Susan Page ("Florida could be the real GOP prize") posits that "In a campaign with no commanding front-runner, Florida looms as a megastate showdown between the party's traditional conservatives and its new breed of populist activists."
But again we ask: when will that showdown take place?
