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RNC committee passes Florida sanctions

Posted Jan 11, 2012 by William March

Updated Jan 11, 2012 at 06:02 PM

The Republican National Committee’s rules committee has passed sanctions aimed at housing, convention floor seating and other perks for the Florida delegation to the 2012 convention, because of the state’s schedule-busting Jan. 31 presidential primary date.

But those sanctions aren’t severe, and probably won’t interfere significantly with the delegation participating fully in the convention, said Paul Senft, one of Florida’s delegates to the RNC.

“Based on what it could have been, it could have been much worse than this,” Senft said.

Another RNC committee also received a recommendation today that Florida’s delegates to the convention be divided proportionally among the top finishers in the Jan. 31 primary rather than all going to the first-place winner.

If that happened, it could make a major difference—the Florida winner could receive only around 15 delegates instead of all 50, and second- or third-place finishers could get 10 or more instead of none.

But Senft said there’s no indication that recommendation will be acted on until near the time of the convention. If there’s a clear nominee at that time, “It may be a moot subject,” he said.

He said despite the sanctions, he believes the Florida delegation to the Tampa convention will still be able to stay in a single hotel in Tampa, rather than being split up or stay out of town.

“I think we’ll be able to move around Tampa comfortably, it will have a minimal effect,” Senft said.

Florida has lost half its delegation, which would have been 99 delegates, because the Jan. 31 date is too early under the schedule approved by the RNC for state primary dates.

The national party’s rules also allow the delegation from a state that commits a violation to be penalized in the selection of their hotel accommodations, the prominence of their floor seating location, and the guest and VIP passes distributed to delegates by the party.