Will Florida be a thorn in the 2012 primary calendar?

Updated 4 p.m. ET

With less than a year until the 2012 GOP primaries, it's important to note that we still do not know exactly when the Iowa Caucuses, the New Hampshire primary, Super Tuesday or any other state primary will actually be.

Right now, the only dates we have come from an agreement between the Republican and Democratic National Committees that stipulates the order of the first four as Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina with the Iowa caucus tentatively scheduled for February 6, 2012, and New Hampshire about a week later.

The current plan has Nevada following New Hampshire by four days, but that in fact violates New Hampshire state law that stipulates that no other primary contest occur within a week each side of the Granite State's Primary, so some tinkering will need to be done.

However, that is just a hiccup compared to the Florida problem.

The rules agreed to by the national party committees state that all the other primaries must occur between the first Tuesday in March and the second Tuesday in June. If any state goes early, they risk losing the seating of some of their delegates at the party conventions.

Under Florida state law, their primary is scheduled for January 31, 2012. In 2008, Florida moved its primary early and the first four were forced to move up as well, with Iowa occurring on January 3, 2008. Unless Florida moves their primary, a similar movement of all the states could occur.

It should be noted that if Florida doesn't move the primary, it risks losing the seating of half of its delegates at the Republican Convention, which happens to be taking place in Tampa.

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So here's the latest: A Florida GOP source tells CBS News that there is a strong discussion going on among Florida Republicans about the primary date. Republicans control the governorship, House and Senate - so they could move the primary if the party can agree amongst itself.

The legislative session is underway, but there's been no action on Democrat-sponsored legislation that has been introduced to move the primary date back. So, it could be some time until the party can make a decision. Some leaders of the GOP in Florida, notably Senate President Mike Haridopolos and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, believe that Florida should keep the primary date in January. They believe that Florida, being the fourth largest state, with a very diverse population, is the early primary state that is most representative of the nation. They believe that Florida, as a major swing-state in November, would and should get more attention by going early.

"We're going to most likely decide the president of the United States and it would make most sense if we did it early in the process," said Haridopolos in The Miami Herald, though he did indicate he was open to discussing the date.

Rubio echoed the sentiment in a statement to CBS News, adding that "it behooves us to make sure that our nominee is palatable in Florida."

"If the Republican Party wants to pay for the elections in Florida, they can have them any day they want," Rubio added. "But as long as the voters of Florida are going to pay for this election, it should be on the most meaningful day possible. An election in late January costs the same as an election in April, but it's a lot more meaningful."

Others though are worried about losing the delegates and the skirmish that would occur with the Republican National Committee over seating Florida's own delegates at a convention the state is hosting.

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Gov. Ric Scott is among those who would like to avoid that conflict. "I want to have it as early as we can, but I don't want to lose any of the delegates," The Herald quoted him as saying.

Rubio fought back at the prospect of his state losing delegates to the convention. "If the RNC thinks the way to win Florida is to sanction the most important swing state in the country, then good luck to them," he said.

The new chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, delivered a similar message when he recently visited the state.

"I would encourage the Legislature to do everything they can to abide by the rules passed by both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee together to make sure we can bring some order into the presidential election process," Priebus said, according to The Herald.

With no movement on the horizon, the nation is still waiting to figure out exactly when voters will begin to caucus or vote for the GOP nominee.