Florida Takes a Stand, Sets Primary Date of Jan 31st

 It is now official: The Sunshine State of Florida will hold it’s Republican Presidential Primary on Jan 31st, 2012.

While GOP establishment operatives across America have expressed a wide variety of complaints about Florida’s decision to hold their Primary on Jan 31st, this Floridian believes this is simply a matter of Florida’s right to decide when to hold their primaries, not the decision of outsiders from other states or establishment GOP operatives who, frankly haven’t been doing so well for America in recent years.It was that kind of elitist mentality that inspired the Tea Party groups across America to take it upon themselves to restore true conservative principles back into American politics, which they did in the historic 2010 elections. Since this whole debate is about Florida’s decision to hold their primary earlier than the GOP establishment would like,  so let’s see what actual Florida politicians had to say were the reasons for the date change shall we? We will leave the national kingmakers of the GOP establishment’s opinions for the end of this article.

 NOTE: This major decision to change Florida’s Primary date in 2012 came about with the creation of a state law that required a committee to be formed that required Governor Rick, House Speaker and Senate President Mike Haridopolos to each nominate 3 choices to serve on the committee,  one of which must be a Democrat, thus the committee had 9 republicans and 3 Democrats on it. The final vote that decided the primary date change was 7 -2, with all Republicans agreeing on the primary date change along with one Democrat.

The committee members are as follows, with who picked the members noted: 

 Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his three choices for Florida’s Presidential Preference Primary Date Selection Committee.
Former Republican Governor Bob Martinez served as Florida’s 40th governor from 1987 to 1991. Before that he served as the mayor of Tampa, the city where he was born.
Former Democrat Senator Al Lawson represented Floridians from 11 panhandle counties from 2001 to 2011 in the state senate, and before that he served nearly two decades in the Florida House of Representatives.
Jenn Ungru, a Republican, is Governor Scott’s deputy chief of staff with oversight responsibilities over the Department of State. She has served in the Scott administration since the inauguration and has more than a decade of campaign and election experience in Florida and nationwide.

Senate President Mike Haridopolos (R-Merritt Island) announced the appointment of Senators Rene Garcia, Gary Siplin and John Thrasher to the Presidential Preference Primary Committee.
Senator Rene Garcia (R-Hialeah) currently represents Florida Senate District 40, which consists of part of Miami-Dade County.  Garcia first was elected to the Senate in 2010.  Prior to serving in the Florida Senate, Garcia was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2000-2008.
Senator Gary Siplin (D-Orlando) currently represents Florida Senate District 19, which consists of parts of Orange and Osceola Counties.  Siplin was first elected to the Senate in 2002 and was subsequently reelected.  Prior to serving in the Florida Senate, Siplin was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 2000-2002.
Senator John Thrasher (R-St. Augustine) currently represents Florida Senate District 8, which consists of parts of Duval, Flagler, Nassau, St. Johns and Volusia Counties.  Thrasher was first elected to the Senate in 2009 and was subsequently reelected.  Prior to serving in the Florida Senate, Thrasher was a member of the Florida House of Representatives from 1992-2000; he also served as Speaker of the Florida House from 1998-2000.

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon appointed the following House Members to the Presidential Preference Primary Date Selection Committee:
Representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera
Representative Seth McKeel
Representative Cynthia Stafford

Florida State Senator John Thrasher, was on the committee that made the final decision to set the primary date explained, "This is about getting Floridians involved at the earliest possible time."  

 U.S. Rep. David Rivera of Miami explained, “It is indisputable that what matters most in the early primary season is MOMENTUM, not delegates," in response to those who worry about the GOP rule that says Florida may lose half it’s delegates if they went ahead with setting an early primary date. Mr. Rivera also added, "That is why states like Iowa and New Hampshire, which have minuscule delegates, matter. As in 2008, Florida will provide overwhelming momentum not because of our delegate count, but because Florida’s critical role in the November election.”

Florida House Speaker Dean Cannon explained his support for the decision to set the early primary date as, "I feel the 31st is the right time," adding, "We are the largest swing state in the presidential race and have more votes than the first four primary states combined. We deserve to be a make-or-break state for the nomination." With the majority of national political insiders calling Florida the most important swing state in the upcoming presidential election, Mr. Cannon’s statements there do carry a good amount of weight as far as to why Floridians decided to take a stand against the establishment  GOP rule forbidding early primaries.

Florida RNC co-chair, Sharon Day stated her concerns as, " I don’t know if it changes the dynamics of the presidential race, but it makes it tough on the candidates," adding,  "I get the argument for Florida, but we created these rules for a reason."

I also got in touch with 2012 Florida District 03 Congressional candidate, Mike Yost to inquire about his views on the Florida Primary date change. Mr. Yost stated that while he had some reservations about the early primary date, that he was in total agreement in the fact that it is Florida’s decision to make,and not the GOP establishment’s right to impose upon Florida. Mr. Yost  also conveyed his concern about whether or not Florida will, in fact lose half it’s delegates as the GOP has threatened to do on numerous occasions recently, and if so , just what kind of a message would that send to the rest of the country?  The answer to that question will be revealed within the next week, as we approach the deadline for states announcing their Primary dates. 

Florida is receiving major criticism across the political spectrum for their choice to hold their Primary on Jan 31st, as we see by the following statements,many of it from early primary states who will now have to adjust their calendars because of Florida’s decision:

From South Carolina Party Chairman Chad Connelly we see this:  “Rogue states have once again dictated the presidential nominating calendar,”  adding,  “States who have worked so hard to maintain the nominating calendar should not be penalized and the offenders, including Florida, should lose their entire allocations of delegates at the National Convention.” Rogue states, Mr. Connelly? What is this, South American politics we are referring do here?  Drop the childish rhetoric and let’s all unite and get to work to defeat Barack Obama in 2012 please.

From Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawm we see this childish temper tantrum: “The arrogance shown by Florida’s elected leadership is disappointing, but not surprising. Equally troubling is to see this petulant behavior rewarded with our national convention (in Tampa),”  How about the arrogance  the establishment GOP has shown in trying to dictate just what day Florida will hold their presidential primary on here? maybe Mr. Strawm needs to face a real conservative challenger in 2012, unlike when he ran unopposed in the 2010 elections? Mr Strawm praises the Iowa GOP establishment on his very own blog,  while totally ignoring the true conservative grassroots Tea Party movement that rebuked the progressive Democrats and Rino-Republicans in the historic elections of 2010, allowing America a real shot of turning this ship around in 2012. Ignore the Tea party at your own risk, Mr. Strawm, as you sound a lot  like GOP establishment elitism in your above statement. Do you hear this, Tea Party of Iowa? 

The small state of New Hampshire actually has a state law that "requires" the state of New Hampshire to hold it’s primary 7 days before any other state !  Good grief, who in the hell came up with that law? Just because the blue-blooded elitists of what, over a century ago, chose to create a such a ridiculous state law in the first place is supposed to somehow dictate to the state of Florida when they can hold their primary? New Hampshire Republican Chairman Wayne MacDonald explained  that his state will move forward if Florida accelerates the season. State law in the Granite State requires that its primary be held at least seven days before any other primary. "But it really defeats the purpose," MacDonald said. "We were trying to avoid front-loading, but here we go again."  One can certainly understand Mr. MacDonald’s dismay about having to change his state’s primary date now, so here is a simple thought: "Why not instill some common sense and abolish the ludicrous law that says you have to be first in line in the first place? By the way, Iowa usually has their primary ahead of New Hampshire, but as one back-peddling politician stated, "It’s not a primary, it is a caucus."  The fate of the country is at stake and these nuts are playing word games. Lovely.

Of course the leftist-sphere had to put in their two cents:

The leftist rag The L.A.Times puts some ridiculous spin on Florida changing their primary debate in an article that features a giant picture of Hillary Clinton talking to a bunch of people holding Obama and Clinton signs back in 2008 here.  That’s right in an article about GOP primaries, the Liberal establishment running the L.A. Times uses a picture of Hillary Clinton. We must have missed Hillary’s announcement that she will be running for President on the Republican ticket in 2012 there.Of course no conservative-bashing L.A times article would be complete without a few lies and propaganda inserted into it to appease their readers out there in Liberal la-la land:

But Florida, which will play host to the 2012 Republican National Convention, in Tampa, wants to have a more central role in picking the nominee. To achieve that, it would run afoul of the RNC, which will dock it about half of its 116 convention delegates. (emphasis mine) 

So in that statement they falsely state that the RNC will dock Florida half of its delegates, period, yet later on in that very same article, they show how that statement isn’t necessarily true:

 Florida also pulled a similar move in 2008, moving its primary to Jan. 29, and helping to lock up the nomination for Sen. John McCain. Though all the Florida delegates made it to the convention floor in Minneapolis-St. Paul — with about half being characterized as "honored guests" — the RNC seems in no mood to make a deal this time.

How about actually reporting the facts and just the facts, instead of trying to inject your leftist mandate on what the GOP will or will not do regarding Florida’s primary date change decision out there in the 20-billion-dollars-in-the-red-budgetarily-bankrupt state of California ?  We do not need advice or mandates about the Republican Party of America coming  from  the ignorant hope n changers of the left coast. Don’t you have some more illegal alien sanctuary cities to be creating out there in la-la land or something else to keep yourselves busy, like spending time creating laws to ban happy meal toys, while business leave the state in droves due to your decades long march towards creating a Liberal utopia?

 The swing state of Florida with it’s added 2 electoral votes, giving it the same total as New York at 29,  is a very critical vote for the Republican candidate to win. Here is a little-known fact: The last Republican candidate to win the White House while losing the Florida vote was Calvin Cooledge in 1924. Florida’s demographics are such a mixed bag that it always makes it a Nervous Nelly situation across the state and country when vote totals start coming in. In 2010 conservative Rick Scott looked like he would actually lose the election to Liberal Alex Sink in the early going, then it was neck and neck through about 80% of the vote with Scott pulling ahead for good pretty much not until the end. Northern Florida and the panhandle are in the mold of the "Old South" with it’s military bases making for a natural conservative base. Central Florida, also referred to as the I-4 corridor, is a mix of retired Midwestern retirees, young suburban families and Democratic-leaning Hispanics, ( largely non-Cubans)  I live in Central Florida, and in the 2010 elections saw Central Florida shift slightly more towards conservatism, which I expect to see happen again in 2012. As people learn the truth about the hope and change catch-phrase and see how inflation, gas prices and the over-all cost of living increases are hurting Florida’s huge Senior citizen population, while living in a stagnant economy, Liberals posing as Democrats will feel the wrath of the informed voter in 2012 in Florida. So will progressive-voting Republicans,especially here in Central Florida. South Florida, which has a huge population of Cuban-Americans who  mostly shy away from the Socialistic planks of Liberal ideology and vote conservative, as many of them know just what the Cuban Socialism did to their relatives and country under Fidel Castro and Company. South Florida also contains many white retirees from the Northeast who remain active in politics. Democratic strongholds in places like Jacksonville are among the most impoverished areas in all of Florida, and we can expect to see them turning red in 2012 also. With it’s totally diverse population, huge amount of retirees, and the emergence of the Tea party across Florida, the Hurri-Cain  beat out Romney and Perry in the Florida straw poll by a whopping margin. Before that reality happened, most insiders thought Florida would be a Romney nomination win over Rick Perry. Now it remains a complete toss-up once again, yet one can not deny the conservative message Floridians sent to the country with Cain’s win, and now the moving up of the Primary date much to the dismay of the GOP establishment. This will make the GOP candidates scramble for the Florida Primary vote even more intense. 

    Here is a tip for all of the whining and crying establishment GOP operatives and assorted pundits that deem themselves so self-important as to denounce the state of Florida for taking a stand against the GOP’s elitist pattern of dictating to Floridians, and other states across the country as to how and when they will hold their primaries: Get over it, the Florida Republican Presidential primary of 2012 will be held on Jan 31st, period.