State Democrats To Keep Primary (Florida)

[seasat]

Source: Tampa Tribune

HOLLYWOOD - A Florida Democratic Party governing committee voted Sunday to proceed with a presidential primary Jan. 29, setting up a collision with the national party.
...
"The proposal is that we play chicken with the national committee," said Bret Berlin of Miami, a member of the state Democratic Party executive committee, just before the committee voted for that proposal.
...
The Republican-controlled Legislature set Jan. 29 as the state's presidential primary date. That violates rules of both parties that say Feb. 5 should be the earliest date for most states, including Florida.
...
The state party could have complied with national rules by holding a caucus Feb. 5 or later to choose its national convention delegates, but that would render the vote Jan. 29 meaningless - guaranteeing state Democratic votes wouldn't be counted.

Read more: http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBHE4R6S2F.html

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Basically the Florida Republican party stuck it to Florida Democratic Party. By moving the primary up to Jan 29th, it means that both parties run afoul of their national party's rules. The result is it reduces the number of delegates from Florida for both party's national conventions. However, the DNC also has a specific rule that if a candidate campaigns in a state that has a primary earlier than Feb 5th then the delegates for that candidate from that state will not be counted. In other words, the Democratic candidate gets penalized more than the Republican candidate.

The alternative was to hold caucuses. However, after the various Florida election debacles that resulted in votes not being counted in Florida in 2000, 2004, and 2006, the state Democratic Party did not want to ignore the voters in the primary. A caucus would have also cost about 5 to 7 million dollars and the state party couldn't afford it. Stuck between a rock and a hard place the Florida Democratic Party chose the rock.

This is another blatant play by the Repugs to game the system in Florida. They blocked votes in African American dominated districts along with other election fraud in 2000, they gerrymandered the districts to favor Repugs, there were electronic voting problems in 2004 and 2006, they changed campaign finance rules to favor the Repug nominee for Governor in 2006, and now they bumped the 2008 primary to weaken Florida's Democratic party in selecting our nominee. There is no level they will stoop to consolidate power.

[BamaLefty]

1. Sealed for Hillary

This closes the books on all other contenders.

Sadly.

[seasat]

4. I'm not sure how this will play out.

If the DNC enforces the rules about campaigning in the state it could mean that Kucinich may be the only one to have delegates that count from Florida. Hillary currently has a huge lead in FL but it won't matter if her delegates won't count. Florida is a large source of donor money and the top candidates can't ignore fund raising in the state. Also, Florida is a large state and requires a lot of money to compete in.

One of my worries is that the problems with the bumped up primary will result in depressing turnout for the primary and general elections. If a candidate gets nominated that didn't have the majority vote in the Florida primary, then it might discourage voters from participating in the general election.

The strategy, I imagine, most of the top candidates will take is to continue campaigning in Florida and hope that a strong showing here will translate into gains on Super Tuesday despite the loss of delegates from Florida.

IMHO, Florida would have had more influence if they had picked a date a week after Super Tuesday. That way if the delegate count came out close, then Florida could have provided a swing vote.

[mikelgb]

2. imho FL does not deserve any more say on who the President is

[Mika]

3. Pelosi endorses the Fla repuke move.

Florida Democrats all giddy about '08 vote
http://www.miamiherald.com/569/story/134813.html

Florida is poised to play a decisive role in choosing the presidential nominees under a new law that pushed up the primary to Jan. 29. Although the date defies national party rules and could lead to sanctions at the national convention, there is a consensus among Democratic leaders to rally around the date.

Even Pelosi seemed to endorse it.

''Florida is a great state to go early,'' she told reporters. ``It represents the diversity of our country in every way. I hope that whatever is worked out will give a strong voice to the state of Florida.''

:banghead:

[MaineDem]

5. If the DNC doesn't act against Florida...

it's totally unfair to those states that are adhering to the rules.

[BushOut06]

6. What are "the rules"?

I'm just curious, because I have to admit that I'm not too familiar with all the details here. As I understand it, each state is free to have their primary whenever they want. Smaller states moved their primaries up so that they could get more attention. But does that really give them more say? Also, are there really any rules that prohibit "large" states like Florida from moving their primaries ahead of others?

[MaineDem]

7. Other than Iowa, Nevada, NH, and SC states have to wait for Feb 5

Any state can hold its caucus/primary anytime between February 5 and June 22 (I think) but only those four states can go earlier than that date. Those 4 were chosen to give other parts of the country and more diverse states a shot at being early.

[BushOut06]

8. Is that actually written down anywhere?

Don't think that I'm attacking you, I'm honestly curious. Is this something that has been actually codified by both major parties? Or is it simply tradition that both parties have honored up until now?

[seasat]

9. It's party rules but not actual government rules.

The reasoning, and I agree with them, is that the small early states allow a candidate with a smaller bank roll to make a bigger splash. To win in states like New Hampshire, you have to be a good retail politician and go from small house party to house party. A strong candidate can from nowhere regardless of how many big buck contributors they have.

I'm mainly lamenting the fact that the change for my state was primarily pushed through by a bunch or Repugs knowing that the consequences for moving up the primary were more severe for the Democratic Candidates.

[MaineDem]

10. I have no idea about GOP Rules but the Dem rules were approved by the DNC

(The DNC has more than 400 members and they approved the rules as presented by the Rules and Bylaws Committee.)

I'm sure they're written but I don't know if they're available online anywhere. If I find them I'll post a link.