Ryan Ray
A bill pushing back Florida’s presidential primaries from March 1 to March 15 — the Ides of March — passed the Florida House on Wednesday afternoon by a 114-0 vote.
The proposal, sponsored by Speaker Pro Tem Ritch Workman, allows Florida Republicans to award all primary delegates to the winner of that state’s primary. New national party rules allow states that hold primaries after March 14 to do that rather than apportioning them according to percentage of vote-share earned. That would be a boon for Marco Rubio or, more likely, Jeb Bush, the Sunshine State’s 2016 favorite-son hopefuls.
“With the passage of HB 7035, Chair Workman has maximized the impact Florida voters will have on selecting the Republican and Democrat presidential nominees in 2016,” said Speaker Steve Crisafulli in a prepared statement. “I applaud his work on this good piece of legislation.”
There was pushback from the backbenchers, though, namely Rep. Kevin Rader who “debated” the bill about 10 minutes, mostly focusing on how he introduced a similar bill in 2009 when he was a newly minted House Democrat. The bill got no traction then. He insinuated that Wednesday’s move was intended to help Florida’s two likely presidential primary candidates.
Yes, Rep. Rader. It’s called politics.
“Congratulations, Representative Rader,” was Speaker Crisafulli’s ironic coda when the bill was passed.
