Florida Leapfrogs Other State Primaries

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, right, hugs Congressman Robert Wexler, D.-Fla., left, before signing a bill which moves Florida's presidential primary ahead of most other states at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office in West Palm Beach, Fla. Monday, May 21, 2007. The bill also requires a verifiable paper trial for all voting machines throughout Florida. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) (Lynne Sladky - AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Gov. Charlie Crist signed a bill Monday moving Florida's 2008 presidential primary up to Jan. 29, leapfrogging several other states in a change that could dramatically alter the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating campaigns.

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."

Crist, a Republican, and other state GOP leaders have argued Florida's diversity and size merit more influence in deciding the nation's leadership. The delegate-rich state decided the disputed 2000 presidential election.

"We may not be the first in the nation, but we're at the forefront," Crist said after signing the bill. "We will be the first megastate to weigh in on the next leader of the free world."

Florida's early election could also have implications in the Feb. 5 primaries scheduled in a dozen other states, including New York and California.

A win in Florida is a big prize because the state is seen as a microcosm of the nation with its diverse population, so it shows how a candidate might do in other states.

"The candidates who finish first in Florida would presumably be the strongest candidates the party could put up in the November election," Black said. "And in building momentum for a campaign, the candidates that do well in Florida would get intense media coverage leading into the next week's events in early February."

Under both Republican and Democratic party rules, states are penalized for moving their primaries earlier than Feb. 5.

Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said the state would lose 50 percent of its delegates and all its superdelegates _ typically members of Congress. Any candidate who campaigns in Florida for a primary earlier than Feb. 5 will be ineligible for receiving any of the state's delegates, Paxton said.

She added that the DNC hoped to work out a separate plan with the state party, such as a caucus, to avoid the penalties.