Florida jumps ahead in primary schedule

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary up to Jan. 29, leapfrogging several other states in a change that could dramatically alter the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating campaigns.

The move puts Florida's primary, which had been scheduled for March, behind only the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Florida has by far the largest population of any of the early voting states set for January and is the most expensive in which to campaign, giving well-funded candidates an even greater advantage and possibly drawing attention away from the smaller states.

"This is going to require the serious candidates to spend very, very large amounts of money and time in Florida," said Merle Black, a politics professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "If you can't compete in Florida, that's going to be a sign that you're not a serious contender."

Crist, a Republican, and other state GOP leaders have argued that Florida's diversity and size merit more influence in deciding the nation's leadership.

Florida's early election could also have implications in the Feb. 5 primaries scheduled in a dozen other states, including New York and California.

"The candidates who finish first in Florida would presumably be the strongest candidates the party could put up in the November election," Black said. "And in building momentum for a campaign, the candidates that do well in Florida would get intense media coverage leading into the next week's events in early February."

Under both Republican and Democratic party rules, states are penalized for moving their primaries earlier than Feb. 5.

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said the state would lose 50 percent of its delegates and all its superdelegates — typically members of Congress. Any candidate who campaigns in Florida for a primary earlier than Feb. 5 will be ineligible to receive any of the state's delegates, Paxton said.

The Republican National Committee has warned it will strip 50 percent of Florida's delegates if the state's primary is moved.

"The rules are inflexible and it doesn't matter who is running the RNC, those rules will be enforced because they are part of the rules that were crafted at the last convention and they can't be changed," RNC chairman and Florida Sen. Mel Martinez said Friday.

Party leaders say the rules are in place, in part, to keep states from constantly leapfrogging over each other to gain a greater say in selecting a president.

But the candidates don't seem to be worried about the potential penalties from the national parties.

Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was already campaigning in the Miami area on Monday. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will also continue to campaign in Florida, said spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Republican candidate Rudy Giuliani told a crowd during an Orlando luncheon on Friday that he, too, would continue to campaign here.