House Dems From Florida Don’t Want Redo?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, Florida, HillaryThat’s the word from Politico:
Washington, DC – The Members of Florida’s Democratic Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives issued the following statement regarding the seating of Florida’s delegates at the DNC National Convention this August.“We are committed to working with the DNC, the Florida State Democratic party, our Democratic leaders in Florida, and our two candidates to reach an expedited solution that ensures our 210 delegates are seated.
“Our House delegation is opposed to a mail-in campaign or any redo of any kind.â€
This surprises me. Perhaps they just want to seat them evenly and be done with it? Because I think we’re all well aware that any suggestions to seat them based on the results from that non-contest would be met with torches and pitchforks.
And by the way, would the political shows please keep Republican Governor Charlie Crist out of this debate on Dem delegates please? I have no problem with him talking about getting all the Republican delegates seated, but he has no business in Dem territory, especially since his Republican legislature created this mess in the first place…
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. [...]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.
So Charlie, we all acknowledge your little ploy worked, but now you need to quit sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.
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March 11th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
People in Florida did not go to the polls to cast a check mark for their favorite Democratic Candidate as they knew it was just a beauty contest. They went to the polls to vote for or against Property Tax Reform (lowering of property taxes). We all knew the primaries did not matter.. So I do not want to hear that Florida is upset that their vote doesn’t count. I do not want to hear that it’s the Democratic National Committee that is to blame, when it’s our own Governor Crist and the state Run Republicans who voted to move the Date, knowing the consequences to doing this.
The Republicans do not want to run against Obama. They want to run against Hillary. The reason, Obama can out perform their candidate in raising cash, can steal independents and moderate republicans, and he and his campaign really have a way of bring out the vote. Hillary on the other hand, will ensure that the Republicans Vote, because of their distain for the Clintons. She also hasn’t proven herself as a good manager of her campaign and her fund raising really hasn’t been what it ought to be.
For those voters who state they will vote for McCain I say to them this. Do it. There is a good chance, you all are Hillary Voters, and frankly she already knifed her party in the back by telling you to vote for him if she doesn’t win. So DO IT.
For those voters who state they will become independents. DO IT. That way you have no say in any primary. Independents cannot vote in Democratic or Republican Primaries.
Stop Whining.. You are all starting to sound like a bunch of old New Yorkers. Oh I forgot, you area a bunch of old New Yorkers. Never Mind…
March 12th, 2008 at 6:15 am
Hey Justin,
Before writing about Florida, why not do some research?
The bill that moved up the election (CS/HB 537) passed in the Florida Senate 37 to 2 and gained final passage in the House 118 to 0.
Translation, the Democrats in the Florida legislature, the duly elected leaders of the State Party, had no problem supporting the move of the primary. Infact, why not ask the 7 Democratic co-sponsors of the bill how much they supported moving the primary.
Also, being from Florida and having a memory that lasts longer than five minutes I can tell you that the Democrats wanted the added clout of an early primary just as much as the Republicans. Now if you want to come back and blame this solely on the Republicans, while relying on people’s short attention spans, well that’s just fine, dishonest, but fine.
Florida tried to call the bluff of the RNC and the DNC and the Florida Democrats lost. The DNC could have done the same thing as the RNC and we would not be having this conversation, but they didn’t.
Florida legislators, and Floridians I might add, wanted the extra power and promises of federal money afforded to early primary states.
All we got was another New Yorker wintering here.
Sometimes you win sometimes you lose, get on with life and stop whining about it.
Florida is growing, those politicians that ignore or perturb the State in the future do so at their own peril.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:13 am
Roger,
So how do u really feel? As an old NY/NJ’er I can’t imagine how pissed-off I’d be if my state govn’t did that to me- and all you complain about is out-of-staters whining?
How could u be mad at the folks in your own party when the state Repubs manipulated the opposing party’s primary process. Sounds like something they do in far away S. American dictatorships. I’ve heard u guys are turnin into a third world country, so now u should thank your Repub. leaders for making that a reality.
I’m not a Hillary fan either, but why do we keep letting the bad guys get away with this stuff and then squabble over the wreckage? Just think of all the time n effort your taxes paid for just to sabotage your vote.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:30 am
This is no surprise. The democrats will go for Clinton Big time and essentially what would happen is guarantee a gridlocked convention. This is something the entire Democratic party is working feverishly behind the scenes to avoid.
Now that the GOP has come to their senses and are no longer wanting to dethrone Hillary in favor of Obama the crossover vote might give hillary a 150 to 50 win in delegates in that state. As we all know that the old people, hispanics and loyal democrats vote for Hillary enmasse.
In fact this is not a surprise at all and Im sure that Obama and company have been in Florida from day one trying to convince the Floridians not to redo this as has Hillary been there trying to get them to redo it.
The fact that Hillary is going to lose the nomination by around 150 votes…..votes that she will have lost from Florida and Michigan is going to be a huge black eye on this party. They know it.
IN fact the day they made this decision I screamed NO. The fact is that everyone thought that Hillary was the nominee so why waste the time.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am
>>>The bill that moved up the election (CS/HB 537) passed in the Florida Senate 37 to 2 and gained final passage in the House 118 to 0.<<<
Didn’t this same bill also contain changes in provisions about requiring paper ballots or creating some kind of paper trail?
March 12th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Yes,
Swatty it does.
It also deals with third party voter registrations, municipalities moving their elections to coincide with the moved primary, the resign to run law, and write-in candidates.
However, the original bill dealt solely with moving the presidential primary and all other issues were added in committee or as amendments.
The original bill passed unanimously through two committees and again passed unanimously through two committees after the amendments were added. At no time, did any Democrat ever vote against moving the primary date while the bill was in committee.
The Senate version of this bill S0960, which was later replaced with the House version, was actually co-introduced by a Broward County Democrat.
My criticism is that narrative being introduced is that the Florida Republicans did this entirely on their own.
The truth is that Florida Democratic legislators, the leaders of the State Party, were never opposed to moving the primary and were more than just innocent bystanders.
They were involved in this from the beginning and wanted all the perks and privileges of being the first big State primary.
They wanted all the Presidential candidates to come and schmooze them with promises of federal money and federal appointments.
They wanted Clinton, Edwards, and Obama begging for their endorsement.
We are talking about the fourth most populous state in the nation, a swing state, that could have played a huge role in picking the Democratic nominee. It still played a fairly lage role picking the Republican nominee even with only half the delegates.
Florida Democrats tried to call the bluff of the DNC. They never thought the DNC would actually disenfranchise such a large State. A State that will still play a large role in picking the next President of the United States.
March 12th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Echo on the “the GOP did this” comments from cfpete. No, everyone did it. The GOP delegation is paying the traditional half-delegate penalty without whining and bitching about it. The DNC changed the penalty to full-delegate for Florida in retaliation for the FL Dems not buckling under to them. IOW, they did this to themselves. They tried to game the primaries and it went the exact opposite of what they wanted.
I’ve been following this mess since it first started, back in August 2006. I’ve said all along that it was a stupid move that could backfire big-time. Well, I wuz right.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
cfpete thanks for bringing balance and truth to the allegations.
Right on, Tully. If dems are upset for ‘losing’ all their delegates, they should take it up with the DNC that made the rules and changed the penalty and very possibly will change the rules, again. What a spectacle of a party!