Florida Republicans urged not to hold early 2012 primary

In an effort to stymie primary "front-loading" in 2012, national Republicans today begged Florida not to hold an early 2012 presidential primary.

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus traveled to Tampa today to meet with the host committee for their 2012 convention and took time to dissuade Florida Republicans from keeping a January primary.

"As far as Florida is concerned, I would do [sic] encourage the Legislature to do everything they can to abide by the rules passed by both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee together to make sure we can bring some order into the presidential election process," Priebus said, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times.

A move from Florida could encourage other states to follow. In past presidential cycles, state political leaders have worried that if their state came too late on the calendar the nomination fight could already be over before they voted.

Ahead of the 2008 election, Florida state lawmakers decided that moving their primary up to Jan. 29 was worth the penalties. The RNC cut off half of Florida's GOP delegates.

Now, the state primary is once again on the books for January in 2012, but state Democrats aren't as keen on the threat of penalties. The state party is encouraging state Republicans to move the primary back to March.

State Democratic chairman Rod Smith on Wednesday renewed his call for "bipartisan cooperation" on the scheduling issue.

"While changing the date of the primary would require action by the Republican Legislature and Governor, I am confident that we can make this happen given the Governor's expressed desire to hold the primary as early as possible without losing delegates," Smith said in a statement.

(Photo of Priebus addressing Tampa Host Committee: Priebus Twitpic)