Crist on "silly'' early primary penalties

Hearing some rumblings that Democrats, having been slammed by the DNC for busting the sacred primary schedule are hoping to re-schedule the primary, we asked Charlie Crist if he had any interest in adding that to the special session agenda: "It's important to keep the primary right where it is. I think Florida being in the forefront is exactly what we need to do. I'm excited about the decision and how it will help Florida make a difference in the future."

And is the gov gov concerned about the prospect of Republicans losing half their convention delegates and Democrats all of their delegates? "Not at all. I think it's silly. It is. What matters is people. The people's vote, the people's will is what these candidates care about."

--Jennifer Liberto

Comments

[rt]

Ya, we'll see how much the candidates care about the "people" in Florida when there are no delegates to win and they will be penalized just for campaigning here.

[terminator]

Charlie may not be quite as exuberant when the RPOF gets whacked and loses half of their delegates due to illegally moving up Florida's primary date.
Greer insists he won't let it happen but I suspect that's alot of hot air.
Silly Charlie, rules are for the little people!

[Campaign Manager]

Actually, Governor, it really does matter if our votes count. I don't vote for the pleasure of seeing whatever new, flawed technology our Secretary of State and Supervisor of Elections have saddled us with. I vote because I want my vote to matter - and in a primary, that means seating all of my state's delegates at the national conventions.

[Edmund Burke]

Tallahassee Leaders need to learn
your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgement; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

[Liberty or Death]

Florida will have its primary on Jan 29. If the DNC sees fit to strip our state of its delegates, then perhaps Florida should strip the Democratic candidate from the ballot in November 2008.

Remember in 2000 when the Legislature was set to appoint the electors for the Electoral College after the Florida Supreme Court ruling? Is this what you DNC jerks want?

Go ahead and keep it up. The RNC should be on notice as well.

Nobody votes in these primaries because of something called a "delegate", whatever that is. They vote to support a "presidential candidate", something everyone understands and relates to. That's why Florida will be relevant, as a gauge for the Feb. 5 primary states.

3:45 is right. Who cares if eiher party has delegate 1? I would much rather have my vote impact the outcome of the Presidency than wait until the nomination is decided, just so a couple of folks I will never know can travel to a national convention.

So Florida Democrats will be irrelevent if they lose all their delegates selected on January 29, or they will be irrelvent if the party switches to a later caucus system.
I love party politics!

[Campaign Manager]

So, are people arguing that only by scheduling it on January 29th could our voice be relevant - that the Florida's voice would be ignored if we held our primary one week later, thereby getting all of our delegates seated at their respective parties' conventions?

A rather specious argument.

This was always just a game of "gotcha" by the legislature that has turned into another national embarrassment for us.

Sort of reminds me of every other legislative session for the last decade.

[SFGOP]

Lets see , Thurman has been CRYING while Greer has been planning !!! , my bet is the repulican voters in Fl come out way ahead.

gotta love the gov gov

[LucieLee]

Why does Florida seem to have a problem with dates....I can understand Florida wanting to be important during the primary...but isn't it even more meaningful to be important during the general election~?

CC and Greer are working this behind the scenes and all the talk. I think that at the end of the day Fl Republicans will get all 116 delegates. People say Greer is a master negotiateing things like this stuff. To bad Thurman does not have the same skills or none of this would have happened to the Dems. If Greer pulls it off, The Governor and Lemeiux need to send him down to Broward to negotiate with the Seminoles.