Florida shakes up early presidential voting

[dogday]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. --Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary to Jan. 29 and shaking up the race by bypassing a dozen other states set for Feb. 5.

The move puts Florida's primary, which had been scheduled for March, behind only the Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary and on the same day as South Carolina's Democratic primary.

Florida has by far the largest population of any of the early voting states set for January and is the most expensive in which to campaign, giving well-funded candidates an even greater advantage and possibly drawing attention away from the smaller states.

"This is going to require the serious candidates to spend very, very large amounts of money and time in Florida," said Merle Black, a politics professor at Emory University in Atlanta. "If you can't compete in Florida, that's going to be a sign that you're not a serious contender."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/05/21/early_primary_will_give_florida_big_say_in_presidential_election/

[iconoclastic cat]

1. Let's just do all 50 sometime next week and f'ing get it over with. nt

[Deep13]

2. "...require the serious candidates to spend very, very large amounts of money..."

Thanks, assholes.

[RevCheesehead]

3. In other words, Karl & his computer will choose the nominees.

:banghead:

[Clark2008]

4. Well, you knew that would happen, anyway.

:grr:

[Bitwit1234]

5. I really the republicans are trying to sew up the nominations

I believe the reason they are pushing up the primaries is to get the ones they want as the nominee....they don't want to give a real candidate a chance.