Legislators ready to set Florida's 2016 presidential primary for March 15

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Republicans are ready to ditch the first-up status in the 2016 presidential preference primary and are drafting legislation to move the date back to the third Tuesday in March.

The bill, to be offered by Senate Ethics and Elections Committee Chairman Garrett Richter, R-Naples, is expected to set March 15, 2016, as the new primary date, moving it into compliance with Democrat and Republican party rules. It would also guarantee that Florida has a full complement of delegates for its native sons, former Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, should either emerge victorious from the GOP contest, Richter told the Times/Herald.

"We want Florida to be meaningful and relevant in the presidential elections,'' Richter said. "We don't want to come under any penalties and we want to have the candidates come to Florida and actively campaign."

The switch would strongly favor Bush or Rubio over candidates from other states, and potentially allow the state GOP to award delegates winner-take-all. The Republican National Committee rules prevent a candidate from receiving winner-take-all delegates any earlier than the 15th. Before then, it must be proportional or the state gets penalized.

The Republican Party of Florida will make the decision on delegate allocation procedures this year, no later than Oct. 1.

The new date would reset the calendar to where it had been before Rubio, the former state House speaker, and his colleagues upset their national party's primary schedule by setting Florida's contest earlier than allowed in 2008.

The state retained the early status in 2012 and was punished by party leaders who stripped them of half their delegates; Democrats banned candidates from campaigning in the Sunshine State in 2008.

Richter said the Florida primary will follow the traditional early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, but would eschew the effort by other Southern states to create a regional Super Tuesday on March 1.

"Republican or Democrat, Florida ought to play a major role in deciding who the next president is,'' said Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, a Bush supporter. He noted how Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008 "came to the state to pick up checks but didn't even campaign here."

"I want them all here and I want them all telling us what they would like to do for Florida,'' he said. "We've got military issues, aerospace issues with NASA and all those things. Let's hold them accountable and you hold them accountable by making them come here and ask for your vote."

The state GOP's newfound respect for the Republican National Convention's primary rules also stems from the fact that the penalty could become far more severe next time the state breaks rank. Rather than force the state to lose some of its convention delegates, the RNC has said it would strip the state of nearly all its delegates, from nearly 100 to 12.