Gingrich to Challenge Florida Winner-Take-All
Feb 01, 2012 - NEWS
In 2010, the Republican National Committee (RNC) acted to prevent a repeat of the 2008 presidential race in which elections crept earlier and earlier. They enacted a series of rules and penalties designed to prevent the race from starting before 2012 and to prevent the race from gaining too much steam before April or May of 2012.
On July 1, 2012 RNC Chairman Michael Steele issued a memo denoting the new rules to all members of the RNC. Those rules clearly state that no state except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada may have their primary prior to February 1, 2012. They also state that no winner-take-all election can be held prior to April 1, 2012. A caveat is included in case the Democratic Party changes their primary dates. The language of that memo is shown below:
(b) Timing.(1) No primary, caucus, or convention to elect, select, allocate, or bind delegates to the national convention shall occur prior to the first Tuesday in March in the year in which a national convention is held. Except Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada may begin their processes at any time on or after February 1 in the year in which a national convention is held and shall not be subject to the provisions of paragraph (b)(2) of this rule.(2) Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April in the year in which the national convention is held, shall provide for the allocation of the delegates selected on a proportional basis.(3) If the Democratic National Committee fails to adopt a presidential primary schedule with the dates set forth in Rule 15(b)(1) of these Rules (February 1 and first Tuesday in March) by December 31, 2010, then the dates in Rule 15(b) shall revert to the dates set forth in the Rules as adopted by the 2008 Republican National Convention.
This language is also included in a February 11, 2011 memo from the RNC's counsel office to all members of the Republican party and interested parties. That February memo also includes additional information that details how those delegates are to be apportioned. It states that in a May 5, 2010 meeting, it was decided that if a state has no other system in place, then the delegates shall be apportioned by simple percentage. It also states that if the delegates are apportioned by both at-large and congressional districts, then the at-large districts must be allocated by simple proportion and the congressional district delegates may be allocated as designed by the state but based on congressional district results.
The memo further notes that the state cannot allocate all delegates to a single candidate unless that candidate received more than 50% of the total vote. It also asserts that the state may establish a minimum threshold of no higher than 20% for a candidate to receive delegates. These rules could mean that Senator Santorum and Congressman Paul would receieve no delegates from Florida.
At first glance, it would seem that Speaker Gingrich has a valid case. The rules clearly state that no winner-take-all contest can be held prior to April 1, 2012, and Florida obviously held their contest on January 31, However, the February 2011 memo includes the statement that deviation from the proper allocation method may result in all delegates not being seated at the convention.
These parameters are included here to provide important guidance. Each state’s“proportional allocation” system is left to the state’s discretion, but substantial departure from these guidelines carries significant risk that not all delegates will be seated.
The problem is that Florida has already been punished for moving its date prior to the established deadlines. Its delegates were already cut in half from 100 to 50. The RNC may simply deem that this punishment includes the repurcussions of allocating all of their delegates to Governor Romney in violation of the proportional allocation definitions.