Legal Commentary

My View: No New Elections for Florida

By Jeralyn

I disagree with Big Tent Democrat, Markos and every other Obama supporter on what to do about Florida. (I'm saving Michigan for another post as it's factually different.)

I don't believe that Obama suffered because of the lack of campaigning allowed in Florida. And, if he did, so did Hillary. They had television. Floridians could watch the debates and the nightly news and read the newspapers. They weren't living in a cave.

It's evident from the high turnout in the Florida primary -- 1.7 million Democrats voted in a primary that was not open to Independents-- that Floridian Democrats came out in record numbers. They voted early, voted absentee and voted on their primary day. In all, 4 million voters voted on Jan. 29, 41% of all registered voters. That's a huge percentage for a primary.

Florida Dems didn't willingly hold their primary early, the Republican legislature forced the early date on them. [More...]

The state-run Presidential Preference Primary date is set by the Florida Legislature. 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.

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.

More of what Floridian Democrats were told:

What about the delegate selection process? Why still go through with the process if the DNC isn’t giving Florida any delegates?

Although the DNC has said it will not recognize delegates from Florida, the Party plans to appeal to the eventual Democratic nominee for President to be seated at the Convention. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Chair of the 2008 National Convention, and DNC Chairman Howard Dean both confirmed that this does not minimize the importance and impact of the vote on January 29th. With this in mind, the Party will continue the delegate selection process to elect the actual delegates to the Democratic National Convention and will use the results of the January 29th Presidential Preference Primary to determine the apportionment of those delegates.

Why didn’t the DNC assign hotel rooms to Florida?

We technically have no delegates at this time. However, when the nominee overrules the DNC and restores our delegation, we will have some of the 17,000 hotel rooms assigned to us.

The DNC was wrong to penalize them -- and the state party repeatedly told voters they would try to get the decision overturned and it was important for them to vote. So did elected officials. People listened. Again, they turned out in record numbers.

Florida held a primary, not caucuses. It would be wrong to hold caucuses now in lieu of a primary. Nor do they need a new primary. The voters spoke. Hillary and Obama were both on the ballot. The DNC just needs to count the votes that were cast.

Hillary got 871,000 votes, 49.8% and Obama got 576,000 votes, 32.9%. The Florida delegates should be awarded consistent with those votes. They should be counted. No new elections.

End of story.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 15, 2008 (boomark / email).