Ryan Ray
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed legislation that will move Florida’s 2016 presidential primaries back two weeks, from March 1 to March 15.
Scott’s approval of HB 7035, shepherded by Melbourne Republican Rep. Ritch Workman and Sen. Garrett Richter, a Republican of Naples, in their respective legislative chambers, puts Florida in position to take advantage of new Republican National Convention rules. The new guidelines allow states to adopt a winner-take-all primary that awards all delegates the winner, as opposed to being meted out piecemeal according to proportion of the vote share won by each candidate.
The move stands to give a leg up to likely Florida-based presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. It reverses the recent trend in Florida electoral calculus where the Legislature moved the state’s primary ahead of the pack, as early as Jan.31, in 2011.
Rubio took an active interest in the same issue in 2013 when he persuaded the state Legislature to omit language to enshrine a January primary in an election reform package that might have exposed Florida to the same national party penalties inflicted on both parties during the 2012 primary elections.
