Charlie Cook at the National Journal really slaps the Florida Democratic leaders for their stunt with the primary date. It is seldom anyone bothers, so I am glad to see it.
Monumental IncompetenceApparently things are different in Florida -- more challenging, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. The two major political parties set rules for the 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses, establishing windows during which states could hold their contests. In their infinite wisdom, the parties allowed, by prearrangement, a few states to vote before their window opened.
Florida and Michigan weren't granted exceptions, but they decided to jump the line and hold their primaries early, in a game of political chicken with the national parties. The parties, as it turned out, didn't blink.
The most powerful sanction allowed under Republican Party rules is for a state to lose half of its delegates. Because there is no provision for the Republican National Committee to change those rules during an election cycle, that punishment stands. The Democratic National Committee's rules called for all delegates selected in violation of party rules to be disallowed, which was done.
Cook points out the many other states who manage to handle special elections quite easily.
Meanwhile, unlike California, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia -- states that have held hurry-up special elections in recent years because of House vacancies -- Florida can't seem to find a way to conduct a statewide election between now and the scheduled end of the nomination season. That is in early June, 70-odd days from today and about half a year after Florida knew it needed a Plan B if it didn't want its Democratic delegation to be shut out of the national convention.
Florida Democrats lamely blame their Republican governor and GOP-controlled state Legislature for this mess, but to most observers their opposition to the nonsanctioned January date seemed to be posturing more than anything else, and it still doesn't explain why nothing constructive has happened since then. What we've seen is a monumental failure of leadership on the part of state Democratic Chairman Karen Thurman and other party officials. For those who don't buy the incompetence argument, the alternative view is that the state party officials simply capitulated to the Obama campaign, which didn't want a revote lest it give Hillary Rodham Clinton a chance to close the delegate gap. Either way, Florida's Democratic voters deserve better than what they've gotten. Florida could have opted for an ordinary primary, a caucus, a "firehouse" primary, or even a vote-by-mail primary. Instead, the Sunshine State decided to punt. Barack Obama, who lost both Florida and Michigan, has chimed in to suggest that he and Clinton just split the states' delegates down the middle, an idea that raises the question of why we bother to hold elections at all.
It is truly astonishing that a state and one of its major parties have opted to declare the political equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, claiming they are incapable of fulfilling their electoral and democratic obligations. And the rest of us got so worked up over the infamous "butterfly ballot." Harrumph!
Charlie is wrong about their giving in to the Obama campaign. They did not want the revote because they know that at this point in time Obama might win a revote. He very well could. That or it would be so close that Hillary would not have the advantage as before.
A person who is doing some work for us asked hubby quietly today if we were Democrats and who were we voting for. He said they were Republicans and like that Obama guy. He also asked what was wrong with the Democratic party...that they were not willing to work with their party leaders. People do notice.
On another note, there are a couple of petitions winding their way through to the rules committee from a Florida DNC member...they will be heard in a couple of weeks.
Here is more on that.
Ausman petition to be heardThe folks who stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates — the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee — held a conference call this afternoon to discuss changes to the delegate selection plans for the two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico had a typo in its plan — the election date).
..."Committee co-chairwoman Alexis Herman, pictured right, started the call with an update on Florida and Michigan.
On Florida, Herman told the members that a pair of appeals from Florida DNC member Jon Ausman were moving through the process. She said she expects a staff review of the appeal to be finished within two weeks.
“We think it would be inappropriate for there to be discussion during this meeting about those specific challenges,” Herman said. “But we want you to know that it is our expectation that we would reconvene this committee to discuss the appropriate next step.”
Ausman is claiming that (1) the party’s charter protects superdelegates from being stripped from a state and (2) party rules stipulate the penalty for an early primary is half, not all, of a state’s pledged delegation. The Leon County Democrat believes the appeal for superdelagates is his strongest argument, which committee member and Hillary Clinton advisor Harold Ickes said last week has “considerable validity.”
Well, see, actually it is not true that the penalty is only half.
Under the DNC delegate selection rules, if a state party’s plan violates the rule with respect to timing, the number of its pledged delegates—those delegates awarded proportionally to candidates based on the primary or caucus results—is automatically reduced 50%(without any action by the RBC or DNC); no member of the DNC can attend the Convention as a delegate; no Member of Congress can attend the Convention as a delegate; and if applicable, the state’s Democratic governor can not attend the Convention as a delegate.
In addition, any presidential candidate who campaigns in the state for the event in violation of the rules cannot receive any pledged delegates from that state. In addition to these automatic sanctions, the DNC the RBC has authority under the rules to impose additional sanctions, including further reductions in the state’s delegation.At its meeting on August 25, 2007, the DNC RBC found Florida’s plan in noncompliance with the DNC rules, and voted to increase the sanctions against Florida by reducing the state’s delegation by 100% unless the state party, within the 30-day period allowed by the Committee’s regulations, submitted a plan for an alternative, state party-run process on or after February 5 that would be used to allocate delegate positions.
FL knew they would lose ALL their delegates if they did not show "good faith" I hate the Ausman idea that superdelegates should count. They are the ones who caused all the problems to begin with. I hope the committee does not do that. Unfortunately, superdelegates have power and can exert tremendous pressure.
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