A plan has emerged to more dramatically penalize states that try to leap-frog ahead of Iowa and the three other states granted lead-off status in the presidential selection process.
As you may recall, officials in the state of Florida rescheduled their state’s 2012 primary into January, before party rules allowed. That meant the state lost half its delegates to the party’s national convention, which begins next week. Florida’s move forced Iowa Republicans to reschedule the 2012 Caucuses for this past January 3.
A proposal that will be debated Friday by the convention’s rules committee would still allow the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to hold presidential selection contests before the last Tuesday in February. But any state that reschedules its primary or caucus before that date would have their delegation to the 2016 Republican National Convention reduced to just nine delegates. For a state like Florida that in a normal presidential election year could have something in the range of 100 delegates at the national convention, that would be a dramatic penalty.