Newt Gingrich to Challenge Florida Republican Party for Proportional Delegates
EmailLAS VEGAS – Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is preparing to challenge the Republican Party of Florida after losing the Republican presidential primary there to Mitt Romney on Tuesday.
The “winner-take-all” state had 50 delegates, all of which went to Romney, who won the state with 46 percent of the vote. The Republican National Convention voted to make early voting states proportional for the 2012 election. Florida was penalized for keeping the “winner-take-all” status. If Florida allotted proportional delegates, Gingrich would likely have picked up 16 delegates, while Romney would have walked away with 23 delegates, leaving the other 11 delegates to be split among Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.
“Florida was held before a certain date,” Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said. “Therefore, we’re asking the state of Florida Republican Party to enforce the existing rule.”
Hammond told reporters Thursday at a campaign stop in Las Vegas that the campaign is mailing a letter to the Republican Party of Florida, asking it to enforce the RNC proportional rule.
Before the letter had even been sent, the Florida RNC Chairman Lenny Curry responded in a statement that the state would not budge.
“Florida was winner-take-all before Election Day, we were winner take all on Election Day, we will remain winner take all,” Curry said. “As Bill McCollum confirmed to Fox News today, had the outcome been different on Tuesday, he would not be seeking publicity for a challenge to the rules adopted by Florida’s Republicans. It is a shame when the loser of a contest agrees to the rules before, then cries foul after losing.”
When Hammond was asked if the campaign would be pursuing challenging the Florida RNC had they won, his response was “probably not.”
Gingrich has one event Friday in Nevada – a grassroots rally in Las Vegas.
The Gingrich campaign insisted in Florida that it is competing in every state even though the number of public events have been minimal in Nevada so far.
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Newt Gingrich should receive proportional delegates because over a half million Florida residents voted for him after he and his wife exhaustively traveled throughout the state giving speeches. Newt was bombarded with negative advertising and so the votes he did receive must be from very loyal supporters. Give Newt his fair share, he earned it!
Posted by: Barbara Dayan | February 2, 2012, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
wa wa wa
Posted by: jo laurie | February 2, 2012, 9:23 pm 9:23 pm
Shame on New Gingrich! A loser is always a loser, no matter how many excuses he uses. He is the most dishonest man but still calls another candidate to be dishonest.
Posted by: andy | February 2, 2012, 9:26 pm 9:26 pm
Here we go again. Suing Virginia, because he didn’t get his sorry butt on the ballot, now he’s challenging Florida. Take a hint Newt, you suck!
Posted by: NHGuy | February 2, 2012, 10:14 pm 10:14 pm
Of course he will challenge the party. Newt doesn’t like rules and breaks them when ever it suites him.
Posted by: Brave Brick | February 2, 2012, 10:47 pm 10:47 pm
The time to challenge the rules of a game—-is before the game is played. Each of these gentlemen expected this to be a winner take all contest—they planned and allocated their time and resources accordingly. Gingrich should focus on future primaries. This behavior makes him look like a sore loser.
Posted by: free_2_choose | February 2, 2012, 11:51 pm 11:51 pm
Newt didn’t challenge BEFORE the vote because he wanted to screw Santorum, Paul, and their supporters out of delegates. Going into Florida they campaigned as a winner take all and left early when they knew they wouldn’t win. If they had known Newt was going to cry foul if he lost and push for proportional representation then they might have stayed to compete and Newt didn’t want that. Newts been telling Santorum to drop out for weeks now- guess he figured he’d push him out if he wouldn’t go willingly. Didn’t you hear Newts “2 man race” speech?
I keep thinking- who is the Republican “establishment” Newt keeps bashing? Would that be code for former coworkers? Hmm….so your former coworkers give you a bad reference and yet because you call them “establishment” it is a good thing? Could it be they gave you a bad reference because you pulled crap like this?!
Posted by: Amy3 | February 3, 2012, 2:20 am 2:20 am
have been cutting newt some slack even though not a fan. but this latest piece of information truly validates that newt is a whiny cry baby. why anyone supports him after all of his baloney since declaring his campaign is a mystery.
Posted by: david | February 3, 2012, 4:55 am 4:55 am
Symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder:
- Reacts to criticism with anger, shame, or humiliation
- May take advantage of others to reach his or her own goal
- Tends to exaggerate their own importance, achievements, and talents
- Lacks empathy and disregards the feelings of others
- Trouble keeping healthy relationships
- Is easily hurt and rejected
- Appears as tough-minded or unemotional
Frightening, n’est pas?
Posted by: Tee C | February 3, 2012, 6:16 am 6:16 am
Regarless of what you think of any of the candidates, The rules are expected to be enforced..,,not changed in midstream. This business of hitting the “other side” with such insane “game changes” is cheating. Romney would be doing the same thing, had he lost. I always thought of the Republican Party as the “fair team”…not so much, anymore. They are counting on us to support whomever is the candidate, just to get O out…may backfire!
Posted by: Samson | February 3, 2012, 10:07 am 10:07 am
Let’s put things in perspective. The National GOP with the states approval adopts rules for the 2012 nomination process. Those rules include penalties for states that want to move up their prmiaries before a arbitrary deadline (April 1). FL wants to move up the primary before the deadline, and passes a law that says those penalties don’t affect us, due to state statute. So, what do you do? Rules were adopted by the National GOP and state GOP says we don’t like those rules, and were not going to play by them due to a state statute. Everyone knew about this beforehand, if Romey lost he’d be doing the same thing. Paul and Santorum didn’t campaign in FL due to financial reasons. If FL is allowed to circumvent the National GOP rules, then why even have National GOP rules?
Posted by: Russ | February 3, 2012, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
If newt won he wouldn’t be whining like the fat clown he is ! Newt lost the primary he knew the rules why didnt he question them before what a joker…….
Posted by: seekthetruth | February 3, 2012, 8:43 pm 8:43 pm