Gingrich Wants Fla. GOP Delegate Allocation Changed

(Wall Street Journal) - Newt Gingrich, just two days after losing the high-stakes Florida primary, intends to ask the state's Republican Party to scrap plans to award all 50 delegates to the national convention to Mitt Romney and instead allot them proportionate to the vote.

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond told reporters in Las Vegas that the campaign had decided to ask for enforcement of a Republican National Committee rule that any state holding its primary before April 1 allocate delegates proportionally, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

In spite of that rule, the Florida GOP decided in September 2011 to award all its delegates on a winner-take-all basis.

That would give Romney the 50 delegates because the former Massachusetts governor won the primary with 46 percent of the vote; Gingrich came in second with 32 percent of the vote.

Hammond said the campaign was asking Florida officials to reverse that decision.

Florida Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry said Thursday the state party won't reverse course. "All campaigns and the RNC have known since [September] that Florida was winner take all," Curry said. "Florida was winner take all before Election Day, we were winner take all on Election Day, we will remain winner take all."

The candidates are still far from amassing the 1,144 delegates needed to win a majority of the 2,286 convention delegates. The Gingrich campaign could press its challenge at the party's convention this summer, but by then it is unlikely it would make a difference.

Asked about the challenge on FOX News' "Hannity" program Thursday night, Romney said, "It would be nice if he challenged the rules before he lost, rather than after he lost."

Romney also compared the legal challenge to the one Gingrich unsuccessfully launched after missing out on making the ballot in Virginia.

Read more: Wall Street Journal