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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Gingrich Challenges Florida ‘Winner Take All’ Primary Results

Gingrich Challenges Florida ‘Winner Take All’ Primary Results


...And It Seems He has An Extremely Valid Beef


By Dell Hill via Allahpundit

I’ve scratched my head, wondering why the Republican National Committee allowed every news agency to give out the “winner take all” description of the Florida primary, when that proviso was supposed to be stricken.  Maybe now I’ll find out!

In the meantime, here’s the meat and potatoes...
                           
“He’s got a case, I think.  Simple rule: Every state that goes before April 1 is required to award its delegates proportionally.  Florida was supposed to go after that date but moved up its primary in defiance of the RNC’s wishes.  They were penalized by having half of their 99 delegates taken away — but for some reason, their “winner take all” rule was allowed to remain in effect despite the date change.  So Romney ended up with 50 delegates last night while Gingrich got squat.

But maybe not for long:

The Newt Gingrich campaign is gearing up to challenge the results of the Florida Republican presidential primary based on the Republican National Committee’s own rules which state that no contest can be winner-take-all prior to April 1, 2012…

Fox News has learned exclusively that on Thursday, a Florida Gingrich campaign official will begin the process of trying to have the RNC rules enforced so that the Sunshine State delegates are distributed based on the percentage of the vote each candidate got.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus warned Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry of the violation in a December letter quoting the rule, “…’winner-take-all’ states cannot hold a primary or caucus before April 1, 2012.”

Newt’s goal here, of course, is to signal to his supporters that he’s in the race for the long haul by scrapping for every available delegate. If Florida used the simplest possible proportional rules instead of “winner take all,” Romney would win 23 delegates from his 46 percent last night and Newt would win 16 — reducing a 50-delegate margin to just seven in one fell swoop.”

Read Allahpundit’s entire piece by clicking right here.

Dell’s Bottom Line:

I waited until at least two of the big dogs - Associated Press and Fox News - declared the delegate totals before repeating them locally, but in the back of my mind was the original ruling concerning the winner take all provision.  Not a soul mentioned it until today...But, I’m glad they finally did!

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