Is Florida cursed? Was there a moment God looked down from on high and asked Himself, should I make a mockery of the human condition right here in the land of flowers where Spanish adventurers slaughtered tribes, where American regiments hunted native Americans in the swamps, where birders shot millions for feathered plume hats?
In the April 2007 session of the state legislature, Florida Democrats--the minority party-- made a deal with Republicans to move the date of the Presidential primary.
As a result, national Democratic officials decided to penalize Florida, refusing to seat the state's delegates at the upcoming national convention where the party's candidate for the November presidential election will be chosen.
"Although pushed by the Legislature’s Republican leaders and signed into law by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, Democrats supported the early primary because it was an amendment tacked onto legislation that mandated a paper trail for Florida election ballots.” (Sun-Sentinel, Sept. 23, 2007)
In August 2007, the DNC (Democratic National Committee) voted to strip Florida of its 210 delegates unless state Democrats agreed to delay the primary by at least a week.
Florida Democrats held their ground, racing forward just like Road Runner in the TV cartoon so proud of his speed that he races off the cliff and hangs in mid-air, looking down before realizing what he’s done. Beep beep.
We will never know whether Republican officials did a little dance to conjure the storm they had drummed up: at the very least, Republican strategist Al Cardenas wrapped up Florida party chairman Karen Thurman in a bear hug.
Now to the particulars.
A year ago, Hillary Clinton appeared to have a lock on the Democratic nomination to be president. Things change: yes they do.
As it stands, the count on Democratic delegates across the nation is nearly even. The key fact is the shift of momentum to Barack Obama. Florida delegates that will not be seated (along with Michigan, punished by the party for similarly breaking ranks by moving its primary date) at the summer convention in Denver could be as pivotal as the superdelegate count.
There are several proposals to resolve the impasse: do something, or, nothing. The “something” requires initiative and money from Florida Democrats—to re-do the primary, now, or to hold a state caucus. It also requires agreement of the DNC and that holds its own set of difficulties, given the strong stand that party leaders took by penalizing Florida and Michigan in the first place. Hillary wants the delegates counted. Barack does not.
Meanwhile, the clock ticks toward the next primaries in Wisconsin, Texas and Ohio.
Such mischief a faun or nymph or sprite could dream up, not a Christian God. Florida, what have you done? Still, the wreck the Republicans made of the economy is such a brake, Democrats will have to put on two left shoes to miss their walk to the White House.
6 comments:
But since 2006 Democrats control the House and Senate.
And they will put on two left shoes. I have two $5 bets that McCain will win the slot. That is how much I believe in the Democrats.
I agree, Genius. They will continue to goof up the process worse. Everytime I hear some of the things one does or the other says, I shutter.
They are going to give us another 8 years of a Bush-like government.
Neither a Republican nor a Democrat will be the next president.
It will be McCain.
M
Howard Dean has a real problem. Michigan and Florida must stay out of it. The super delegates need to go with the people. If there is any perception of rule changing in the middle of the game, or other cheating activities, the Democratic party could loose a whole generation of voters.
Bill Clinton is now breaking people's arms in the remaining states. He can't wait to either get back in the White House or get a Republican elected.
Dean will have to see that the will of the people is reflected in the nominee.
If Hillary wins, then the Republicans can immediately begin their victory celebrations. A large number of the Obama people will stay home. She will excite the Republican base, and they will come out in record numbers to make sure she doesn't win. It is a formula for disaster, and four more years of deaths in Iraq.
If Obama wins, he will pull his people, unite the party, bring in Republicans, as well as independents.
Sometimes in life the only way to win, is to loose. Hillary needs to loose.
First off, Florida Democrats did not make a "deal" with the Republicans in the Florida Legislature, which has the sole authority to set the date for the state-run Presidential Preference Primary. In the 2007 legislative session, the Republican Speaker of the House made it a priority to move up the Primary to January, in violation of both Democratic and Republican National Committee Rules. The Legislature passed the bill, which also included the new requirement that all Florida elections have a paper trail starting in 2008. Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill into law in May.
Initially, before a specific date had been decided upon by the Republicans, some Democrats did actively support the idea of moving earlier in the calendar year. That changed when Speaker Rubio announced he wanted to break the Rules of the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Following this announcement, DNC and Florida Democratic Party staff talked about the possibility that our primary date would move up in violation of Rule 11.A.
Party leaders, Chairwoman Thurman and members of Congress then lobbied Democratic members of the Legislature through a variety of means to prevent the primary from moving earlier than February 5th. Party leadership and staff spent countless hours discussing our opposition to and the ramifications of a pre-February 5th primary with legislators, former and current Congressional members, DNC members, DNC staff, donors, activists, county leaders, media, legislative staff, Congressional staff, municipal elected officials, constituency leaders, labor leaders and counterparts in other state parties. In response to the Party’s efforts, Senate Democratic Leaders Geller and Wilson and House Democratic Leaders Gelber and Cusack introduced amendments to CS/HB 537 to hold the Presidential Preference Primary on the first Tuesday in February, instead of January 29th. These were both defeated by the overwhelming Republican majority in each house.
The primary bill, which at this point had been rolled into a larger legislation train, went to a vote in both houses. It passed almost unanimously. The final bill contained a whole host of elections legislation, much of which Democrats did not support. However, in legislative bodies, the majority party can shove bad omnibus legislation down the minority’s throats by attaching a couple of things that made the whole bill very difficult, if not impossible, to vote against. This is what the Republicans did in Florida, including a vital provision to require a paper trail for Florida elections. There was no way that any Florida Democratic Party official or Democratic legislative leader could ask our Democratic members, especially those in the Florida Legislative Black Caucus, to vote against a paper trail for our elections. It would have been embarrassing, futile, and, moreover, against Democratic principles.
Unfortunately, Florida Democrats are outnumbered almost 2 to 1 in the Legislature. They are an extremely hard-working and committed group, but to change a law that the Speaker of the House has made a priority is nearly impossible.
The Party has considered many options to comply with DNC Rules, but none were able to meet the goals of holding an open and fair process, maximizing participation, protecting the right to vote and building the Democratic Party. Additionally, the other solutions would either 1) fail to reach all Democrats; 2) spend money we don’t have or that should be spent on winning elections; and/or 3) confuse voters by taking away from Jan. 29th.
A VBM would cost upwards of $8 million and to conduct caucuses to determine the state’s presidential preference would have been the same. Although we looked at caucus proposals that had a cheaper price tag, those proposals would have disenfranchised core constituencies within our party – seniors and lower income voters – and also limited outreach and education that would have been so desperately needed in every county and every community across the state to minimize confusion.
1.75 million Florida Democrats voted on January 29, and we will be allocating our delegates based on the primary results. We will be electing the people who will serve as delegates to the national convention on March 1 in congressional district caucuses. There is no need for media, bloggers, or anyone else to sound the alarm bells about our delegates. The nominating process continues through June 10, and we are confident that our delegates will be seated at the national convention. Many more states have yet to vote and hundreds of superdelegates have yet to weigh in.
Post a Comment