Florida Democrats today flouted the national party's threat of retaliation if the state goes ahead with plans to move the presidential primary up to Jan. 29.

The state's 10 Democratic members of Congress, led by Sen. Bill Nelson, issued a joint statement to "strongly encourage all Democrats to vote for their preferred nominee in that primary, regardless of whatever penalties the DNC might enact."

"We cannot go along with anything but the state-run primary set for next January," they said. "The vote is going to matter -- period," the lawmakers said.

The lawmakers said they would sue the DNC to stop it from banning Florida delegates, if it comes to that.

The statement comes three days after the Democratic National Committee led by Howard Dean voted to expel Florida's delegates to the national convention if the state party does not hold its presidential caucus on Feb. 5 or later, instead of a binding primary set for Jan. 29.

The primary date was scheduled in a law passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Gov. Charlie Crist, Republican.

"I hope we're going to be able to work this out," Mr. Nelson said. "The easy solution is for a few other states to move their primaries up before Florida's."

The Florida Democrats include Reps. Allen Boyd Jr., Corrine Brown, Kathy Castor, Alcee Hastings, Ron Klein, Tim Mahoney, Kendrick Meek, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Robert Wexler.

-- S.A. Miller, Capitol Hill correspondent, The Washington Times