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As a penalty for the state of Florida moving up its Primary date to January 31, the Republican National Committee cut in half the number of delegates the state can send to the National Convention. The move has rendered the state not worth the high cost of campaigning there, according to at least one candidate already. The Miami Herald reports,

Ron Paul’s presidential campaign took a look at the math and the campaign map and decided Florida just isn’t worth it, Politico reports.

Campaign chairman Jesse Benton said it would cost about $9 million for Paul to be competitive. And that was too much for 50 delegates. A candidate needs 1,150 to win the nomination. Florida would have had 100 delegates, but it lost half because the Legislature made the primary early, on Jan. 31. So Florida was penalized by the Republican National Committee.

“It’s such an expensive state, and with their delegates cut in half, the math just doesn’t make any sense,” Benton said, according to Poliico. “We’re a delegate-focused campaign. We’re focused on winning the 1,150 delegates to secure the nomination. And the amount of resources and time it would take to compete for those 50 delegates just didn’t make sense to us.”

The report concludes that this is a good decision for Paul, and actually looks bad on Florida:

Paul’s decision to skip Florida is the first sign that Florida’s decision to buck RNC rules might have hurt the state’s prestige, rather than help it. It’s also a sign that Paul’s campaign, run by amateurs, can make professional decisions.

One comment to the post was quick to add that Florida grass-roots volunteer campaigning for Paul is still vibrant:

Suppose they gave a primary and nobody came? Be sure, there will still be a Ron Paul campaign in Florida. You have 21 chapters of Youth for Ron Paul at the following colleges and universities (# of members)

Florida (21)
Florida State University (170)
University of Central Florida (157)
Santa Fe College (52)
University of Florida (45)
South Florida Youth For Ron Paul (24)
University of South Florida (19)
Florida International University (13)
Valencia College (11)
University of Miami (10)
Northwest Florida State College (7)
Florida Gulf Coast University (3)
Stetson University (3)
The University of West Florida (2)
Broward Community College (2)
Southwest Florida Youth for Ron Paul (2)
Lake Sumter Comm. College (1)
G Holmes Braddock Senior High School (1)
Boyd Anderson High School (1)
National University of Health Sciences (1)
The University of Tampa (1)

You also have the Blue Republicans (Democrats and Independents for Ron Paul.

Ron Paul has the largest number of active volunteers of any candidate.

I just wonder why Florida keeps “shooting itself in the foot” by moving your primary. Didn’t you learn anything from 2008?

Meanwhile, Paul leveled the competition at a recent straw poll in Super-Tuesday State Idaho. Often ignored, Idaho sends more delegates (32) to the national convention than vaunted Iowa (28), approaching as many as penalized Florida (50).