Clintons Try To Gain Michigan And Florida Delegates?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Democrats, Edwards, Florida, Hillary, MichiganSo the DNC yanked the delegates from these states because they moved their primaries up and now the Clintons are trying to get those delegates to count again?
First, their statement…
I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee.I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election, and so I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so and I fully respect that decision. But I hope to be President of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and that we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention.
I hope my fellow potential nominees will join me in this.
I will of course be following the no-campaigning pledge that I signed, and expect others will as well.
So she wins Michigan because she didn’t take her name off of the ballot and now that she has a sizeable lead in Florida she’s trying to game the system even more. Amazing.
Josh Marshall talks a bit about how Hillary’s name somehow stayed on the ballot in Michigan…
Each of the major candidates signed a pledge not to “campaign or participate” in any primary or caucus prior to Feb. 5th except for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The other major candidates adopted what seems like the only reasonable interpretation of the pledge (see text here) and pulled their names from the ballot.But then Hillary didn’t, thus in essence guaranteeing her win in Michigan.
The Clinton campaign said taking her name off the ballot wasn’t required by the pledge. But what can “participate” mean over and above “campaigning” other than formally being a candidate in the race?
Heh…okay Hillary. Whatever.
Ezra Klein talks about what this could do to the party overall…
But if this pushes her over the edge, the Obama camp, and their supporters, really will feel that she stole her victory. They didn’t contest those states because they weren’t going to count, not because they were so committed to the DNC’s procedural arguments that they were willing to sacrifice dozens of delegates to support it. It’s as hard as hardball gets, and the end could be unimaginably acrimonious. Imagine if African-American voters feel the rules were changed to prevent Obama’s victory, if young voters feel the delegate counts were shifted to block their candidate.
This is truly slash and burn style politics and they’ll stop at nothing to get back into the White House.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Billary, Democrats, Edwards, Florida, Hillary, Michigan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 26th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I find the outrage on this issue misplaced and unseemly. She is trying to game the system? Oh my! What a terrible thing to do! She has been playing for Michigan and Florida delegates for a long time. She has clearly had a strategy to stay on the ballot and seek the seating of the delegates at the convention. This is within the rules and allowed (the vote of delegates as to the seating of MI and FL delegates). No one was required to remove their names from those ballots and only a stupid idiot would have done so. If she succeeds in seating those delegates good for her. At least someone knows how to play this game. Of all of the criticisms of HRC i have heard, this is surely the weakest by people who did not know how to game the system, and probably wouldnt have a clue how to do that if elected.
February 12th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Passage of Florida legislative bill HB 537 has caused 1.7 million voters to become disenfranchised. Unless the RNC & DNC policies are changed, this could happen to you some day; regardless of your state or party affiliation. The contents of this website will discuss this bill, what happened; and what you can do to try to reverse this situation and prevent it from recurring. Please help us reinstate the voting rights of Florida Democrats. How you can help:
Pass this information on to others.
Visit the website
http://florida-delegates.com
Read the Position Summary Section
http://florida-delegates.com/pages/our-position.php
Visit the What To Do Page and follow our action suggestions
http://florida-delegates.com/pages/your-help/what-to-do.php
If you have already signed a petition that combines the Michigan and Florida reinstatement effort, please sign this petition also. There are different arguments for each state and I believe they need to be argued independently.
Please keep these facts in mind as you read the contents of this website:
* The Florida Democratic primary election ballot had all democratic candidates listed.
* Florida Dems have been disenfranchised, through no fault of their own
* HB537 was written by a Florida Republican to change Florida’s primary date.
* A state legislature has interfered with it’s constituents National voting rights.
* The Florida Democratic Party did NOT change this date, the legislature did.
* The Florida legislature has an overwhelming Republican majority.
* The House of Representatives in Florida have 41 Democrats; 71 Republicans.
* The Senate in Florida have 14 Democrats; 26 Republicans
* The state of Florida has a Republican Governor.
* The citizens of the state of Florida did NOT vote on this date change.
* HB537 was passed in May 2007 & legislatively changed the Florida primary date.
* This date was, and still is, unalterable by the Florida Democrats.
Sharon Lane, http://florida-delegates.com