Florida political leaders struck their claim this week in the presidential primary land grab as they pushed the state's contest to Jan. 31 and forced traditionally early primary venues to also move their contests earlier.

A committee created to pick the date for the primary decided the risk of losing half the state's convention delegates in both parties was a small price to pay for placing the heavily-populated swing state near the head of the line, giving it more clout in choosing the Republican nominee.

The committee wasn't alone in looking ahead to 2012 elections. House Speaker Dean Cannon said his chamber will challenge a judge's ruling affirming the FairDistricts Florida constitutional amendments passed last year that restrict the way lawmakers can draw congressional and state political boundaries.

While political leaders met at the Capitol on Friday to pick the primary date, a circuit judge across the street shot down a plan to privatize 29 South Florida prisons and work camps. Union representatives who filed the lawsuit on behalf of state prison guards and other correction workers claimed victory, while privatization proponents studied options to put out for bid a huge chunk of the nation's third largest prison system.

Providing a somber backdrop to the flurry of forward-looking activity, streams of well-wishers, former colleagues and political foes paid their last respects this week to former Gov. Claude Kirk, an idiosyncratic leader who became Florida's first Republican governor since Reconstruction. Kirk died this week at the age of 85.

PRIMARY DECISION CAUSES NATIONAL FLAP:

In a move certain to provide fodder for Sunday morning talk shows, Florida political delegates decided this week the state will buck the national parties and hold its presidential preference primary on Jan. 31.

Setting the stage for a last-minute flurry of decisions in traditionally early primary states, a committee of state political leaders voted 7-2 for the Jan. 31 date, a move that will likely result in the state losing half its voting bloc of delegates at the nominating conventions now less than a year away.

Florida would still be behind Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- states which have typically led off the presidential selection cycle -- but is breaking the parties' rules by going earlier than March 6. And all those early states may now move their own primaries up.

"We're the biggest swing state in the Union," said former Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican on the panel. "Texas is red, New York is blue, California is blue and we're 10 electoral votes greater than Ohio. So, I think this is a real, real election in Florida."

Two Democrats on the panel, Sen. Gary Siplin of Orlando and Rep. Cynthia Stafford of Miami, voted against the proposal, pushing instead for a March 6 date that would assure that both parties' delegates will be seated.

"I believe that Florida should respect the integrity of the process and comply with the rules that both political parties agreed to," Stafford said. "I don't want the voices of Floridians to be diminished and the state penalized because Florida failed to adhere to the agreement."

Republicans on the panel dismissed such concerns, saying it has been decades since the conventions played key roles in the selection of a candidate.

"Today's modern convention, I believe and others believe, has become a formality and a coronation of the nominee who's been determined by the momentum and coverage he gets in a 24-hour news cycle based on the victories achieved in the early stage," said state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera, R-Miami.

One Democrat, Al Lawson, joined the Republicans in voting for the Jan. 31 date.

In other election news, House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, told reporters this week that the chamber will appeal a federal court ruling upholding the constitutionality of a pair of constitutional amendments offered by FairDistricts Florida, which places restrictions on how lawmakers can draw political boundaries.

The House has joined Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown, a Democrat, and Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican, who have challenged the constitutional amendments.