The Florida delegation at the Republican National Convention was almost a no-show to help kick-off the nomination process for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. It's all because the delegation ended up getting stranded at their off-site hotel, the Innisbrook Resort.
Florida got punished because it went against national Party rules when it moved up its presidential primary to January. As it turns out, part of Florida’s punishment was to have their delegates housed nearly an hour’s drive away from the convention site in downtown Tampa. Delegate Susie Whiles, who was glad to finally make it on the convention floor, said that penalty was further compounded when convention organizers forgot to book a bus to the convention site.
“Takes you two buses to get here, only you can’t get the second bus if the first bus never comes, so that’s what happened this morning.”
Also part of the punishment, Florida’s 99-member delegation was cut to 50 voting members.