William March in today's Tampa Tribune reports that Republican Party of Florida may attempt to revive what has in the past been a significant event in electing their nominee for president – by hosting a straw poll in the fall of 2011.
March's excellent report looks back historically at how previous straw polls in 1988, 1992 and 1996 all played significant roles in finding the nominees for the GOP and the Democrats, with victories by Bill Clinton in '92, and George H.W. Bush in '88 and Bob Dole in '96, paving the way for their ultimate nominations.
If state party leaders were to push for the straw poll (which would be dubbed the regal and somewhat daunting title of "Presidency V"), it'd be in lieu of dropping any plans a la 2008 to move the state primary up, which ironically achieved exactly what state leaders intended it to (many political analysts attribute John McCain's victory over Mitt Romney on January 29, 2008 as effectively making McCain the nominee), while also creating massive headaches for the Democratic party, that ultimately were not resolved until Barack Obama had the nomination in hand in the summer of '08.
The GOP state legislature, in contravention of the dictates of their own national party, voted in 2007 to move the state presidential party up from March to late January, as recent election cycles had shown that by February in many years, the nomination fight was already over (though the bill was actually co-sponsored by a Democrat, Broward County's Jeremy Ring, in the House).
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2010.
