TAMPA -- OK, Mitt Romney, it?s time to step up for Florida.
Florida Republicans revived your candidacy in the Jan. 31 primary. They?ve donated more than $7 million to your 2012 presidential campaign. They?re hosting your nomination bash at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. And without Florida?s 29 electoral votes, it?s nearly impossible for you to win the White House.
So now Florida Republicans are expecting the presumptive nominee to nudge the Republican National Committee into easing off Florida?s penalties for breaking party rules by holding a January primary. They want at least 99 Floridians seated at the Aug. 27-30 Republican National Convention in Tampa, though the RNC has lopped Florida?s delegation in half to 50.
?We?ve asked the Romney people to go to the RNC,? said Peter Feaman, a Republican national committeeman from Boca Raton. ?If we can?t have all our delegates, can you at least seat all of us and allow us in the convention??
No other swing state has as many electoral votes as Florida. With that mega battleground status comes a hefty sense of entitlement, which may explain why so many party activists gathered in Tampa for the state GOP?s quarterly meeting this weekend sounded utterly confident they ultimately will escape the strict penalties promised by the RNC.
On Saturday, party leaders approved a full slate of 99 delegates and 96 alternates, two from each of the state?s 25 congressional districts and the rest at-large choices by the party chairman. If the RNC sticks to its penalties, the state party in June or July will revise the list to designate the 50 official delegates.
?The reality is Mitt Romney is not going to have Florida be penalized. We?re the battleground of all battleground states,? predicted A.J. Matthews, a state committeeman from Hillsborough and a delegate representing congressional District 11.
Orange County GOP Chairman Lew Oliver agreed: ?There?s an expectation that Mitt Romney will fix it. I would guess what they do is allow 99 people to be credentialed and be able to go into the convention but not necessarily cast a vote.?
That?s what happened four years ago, when the state party also violated the officially sanctioned primary calendar by setting Florida?s primary in January. Ultimately all 114 Florida delegates had prime seats in the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., but half of them were designated non-voting ?honored guests.?
The Florida GOP activists? expectations for the Tampa convention put former Massachusetts Gov. Romney in an awkward position. To press the RNC to indemnify Florida is sure to antagonize party activists from other states who complied with the rules.
The Romney campaign declined to comment on the matter Saturday.
Even if Romney does press the RNC, there are no guarantees that the presumptive nominee will succeed in persuading it to back off Florida, which is a now a two-time offender.
?The rules committee has made it clear the rules will be enforced,? RNC spokesman Matt Connelly said when asked about the potential for mercy on Florida?s delegation.
Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said he is optimistic that a compromise will be reached.
?Penalizing the grassroots because of something the Legislature did doesn?t make sense. (A legislative-led committee set the primary date.) We need these people in the trenches as involved and engaged and motivated as possible,?? said Curry, noting that he continues to make his case to the RNC. ?If you push on a wall long enough eventually you get through, or you find a way to go around it or over it. But I can?t tell you it?s moved much so far.?
Republican leaders in the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott knew of the potential for penalties when they set an early primary, but they said it was much more important to ensure America?s biggest battleground state had influence on picking the nominee. Romney handily won Florida?s primary, though the bruising campaign continued on for more than two months before he was acknowledged as the inevitable nominee.
Scott on Saturday predicted Florida will be accommodated for one reason: ?You have to win Florida to win the presidency.?
But Sharon Day, national committeewoman from Fort Lauderdale and co-chair of the RNC, wasn?t as optimistic. ?I never say never, but it will be tough.?
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