Florida's primary is now in the rearview mirror and Mitt Romney has likely claimed another 50 delegates. What if anything does it mean for Alaska's Republicans, shivering in the dark and patiently awaiting their chance to weigh in?

Depending on how things shake out over the coming months -- and if at least one of the other three candidates (Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum) keeps their word and continues to campaign up to the Republican National Convention in late August -- Alaska's 27 delegates might just might find themselves having an outsized importance in the nomination.

It's easy math despite convoluted party rules.

Alaska, a state of only 710,000, will be at least as important as Maine (population 1.3 million), more important than South Carolina (nearly 4.7 million), and more than twice as important as New Hampshire (nearly twice as populous as Alaska).

How's that? Start counting delegates. Maine has 24; South Carolina has 25, and New Hampshire, despite its outsized role in the contest, only offers 12.

In fact, if all four Republican contenders make it to Super Tuesday on March 6, when Alaska holds its presidential preference poll, Alaska's delegates could make a big difference. Other states voting that day include Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming, for a total of 426 delegates at stake.

Massachusetts and Georgia are Romney and Gingrich states, respectively, accounting for 117 of Super Tuesday delegates. Neither Gingrich nor Santorum gathered enough signatures to make it onto the Virginia ballot, which offers 49 delegates. And all of this gives Alaska added weight in the evolving race.

Larger states tend to have more delegates to offer than Alaska. But because of party rules and Republican Party registrants, that's not always the case. This election cycle is one of those exceptions. South Carolina and New Hampshire, for instance, were penalized for disobeying the Republican National Committee by moving up their primary elections. Consequently, each state lost delegates to send to the nominating convention. Nevada, which has a population of over 2.5 million, has 28 delegates. Vermont only offers 17 delegates.

With each of the first four states divvied up between three candidates, there's not yet a clear path to the nomination, which requires a plurality of delegates­.

Because Florida's state Republican leaders decided to buck the Republican National Committee and hold an early primary, the state lost half its delegates, from 100 to 50. And it's unclear whether Gingrich, Paul or Santorum will dispute Romney's winner-take-all success in the Sunshine State.

That means Alaska's status in the process gets an immediate boost. "We're half as important as Florida," says Evan Cutler, who's volunteering for Ron Paul's campaign in Alaska.

Gingrich has been attempting to prepare the nation for a long fight, noting that only 115 of 2,288 delegates -- about 5 percent -- have been awarded.

"The proportional nature of the upcoming contests essentially guarantees that no candidate will secure the nomination anytime soon, and the map gets better for us as we get deeper into the calendar," Gingrich senior adviser Kellyanne Conway is quoted in Politico as saying.

An Alaska horserace

Alaska's Republican presidential preference poll is open to only registered Republicans. Paperwork will be on-hand at each voting center to change registrations. After Super Tuesday's preference poll, Alaska delegates will be proportionately assigned to the Gingrich, Paul, Romney and Santorum campaigns, based on the number of votes each candidate receives (and if they all remain in the race through Super Tuesday).