There are 50 delegates at stake in today's primary, and all of them will be awarded to the winner of the statewide vote. Given that a new Republican National Committee rule prohibits states that vote before April -- except for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- from awarding their delegates on a winner-take-all basis, you might ask why Florida's delegates aren't awarded proportionally.
The RNC already penalized Florida for moving its primary into January, taking away half the state's delegates. And, apparently, the RNC cannot punish a state more than once. So Florida decided that since they were free from any further delegate fines, to give all its delegates to the primary's victor.
There is still a chance that Florida's delegate allocation will be proportional after all. The RNC could challenge the state's winner-take-all status at the party convention in August.
In any case, currently, Newt Gingrich is leading the delegate race with 23 delegates, closely followed by Mitt Romney at 21. Rick Santorum has 13, Ron Paul has 3 and erstwhile candidate Jon Hunstman has 2.
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