As Newt Gingrich challenges the legality of the "winner take all" aspect of this week's Florida Primary, officials in Arizona's GOP say they have no plans to move away from "winner take all" in that state's February 28 primary, even though national party rules prohibit such delegate plans before April 1.
"We really have nothing to say about the Florida Primary because our law codifies our position," said Shane Wikfors, Communications Director for the Arizona Republican Party told me by email.
But the Republican Party rules for the 2012 race are pretty clear on this point:
"Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April in the year in which the national convention is held, shall provide for the allocation of delegates on a proportional basis."
In other words, if your caucus, primary or convention is before April 1, you can't have "winner take all."
But Florida did.
Arizona will too.
"We don't anticipate any challenges by any of the presidential candidates," Wikfors added.
And that's the cold, hard truth of "rules" for a party convention. A state may lose delegates as happened this year with the Republicans and in 2008 for the Democrats.
But you will have to look under a lot of rocks inside the GOP to find someone who truly believes the national party will do anything about the issue - even though the rules seem pretty clear.
That's just how politics works.
And everyone knows that Gingrich's allies wouldn't be complaining about Florida's "winner take all" formula if Newt had won in the Sunshine State.
That's just how politics works.
