Alcee Hastings, Bill Nelson to file suit next week. Activist DiMaio says join his suit.

[madfloridian]

Victor DiMaio is the Tampa activist who filed suit against the DNC and the state party. Apparently that is underway already. Here's a little about the lawsuit so far.

During a news conference Thursday, DiMaio also urged Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson to join him in the suit rather than file separate legal action against the party, as he has threatened.

But it appears that Alcee Hastings and Bill Nelson are already preparing their own lawsuit.

Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar, the Florida congressional delegation's senior Democrat, said Thursday afternoon that he had just received a draft of the suit he and Nelson hope to file sometime next week.

Hastings, a former federal judge, acknowledged that case law about party primary disputes is murky, but he was hopeful of finding solid legal ground that could clear it up, to Florida's benefit.

"That's what litigation is designed to do," he said.

This should be very interesting. Two lawsuits taking up DNC time and money, money that could be used to rebuild state parties. The 1981 Supreme Court decision was in the DNC's favor. The people still have their vote, it counts for all but delegates.

And the delegates would have counted if Florida had stood up to the GOP instead of working with them.

A little of the responses of the state and national parties.

In responses to the suit submitted this week, the state and national parties say DiMaio has shown no wrong that needs to be corrected, since he will still get to vote. Party officials argue that courts have upheld the party's right to determine how it selects a nominee, regardless of whether an election is held.

So let's see, we have those two lawsuits, we have one of the lead guys in the Florida Senate calling IA, NH, NV, and SC "terrorist rogue states" and threatening to sue all four of the states.

The 4 "terrorist rogue states" according to Steve Geller

WEST PALM BEACH — Florida Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller called Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina "terrorist rogue states" and said he's contemplating a lawsuit against them for pressuring Democratic presidential candidates to boycott Florida.

Geller, of Cooper City, made the remarks to a Democratic Professionals Council luncheon audience of about 50 on Wednesday. He was the group's replacement speaker after the originally scheduled headliner, New Mexico Gov. and presidential hopeful Bill Richardson, canceled because of the pledge not to campaign in Florida.

And through all of this my husband and I are the ones who are being treated rather as outcasts because we openly disagree. That is just so odd. Maybe someday we will care again. Maybe.

The Miami Herald puts the whole thing together succinctly.



http://www.miamiherald.com/jim_morin/image_media/244737.html

[spag68]

1. Fla. Primary

Do you understand that it was the repubs. in Fla. the put the real estate rules on Jan. 29 along with their primary? The dems. know that if they don't have their primary then they will likely lose the real estate rules. I do agree that a suit against the DNC would be a waste of dem money and Hastings should know better. Nelson on the other hand is a dino anyway.

[madfloridian]

2. No, that is not true. Please tell the truth.

I have posted so much about this. The Democrats worked to get the bill through right from the beginning. I even saw today where Jeremy Ring who helped introduce it said nobody fooled him, he knew what he was doing.

I have a lot of links I have researched, will be glad to post.

The Florida Democrats need to tell the truth.

Democrats in a state controlled by Republicans were given an out by the committee. If they fought the GOP, they would have kept their delegates.

The rules committee had the floor transcripts.

[madfloridian]

3. More from Nelson about his lawsuit.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/sep/28/amie_parnes_who_are_they_kidding_over_childrens_in/?breaking_news

"But Florida’s senior senator never really said how he would attempt to sue the Democratic National Committee and on what grounds.

On Friday, Nelson dropped another hint about his legal intentions.

“The lawsuit we’re intending to file next week won’t be about the rules of a political party,” he said. “It’ll be about the right of every person to have access to the ballot box, and to have their vote count. It’ll be about the fundamental concept of one person, one vote.”

Democrats have until today to push back their primary date or face the consequences of losing all their national convention delegates.

Stay tuned. We think this could get reeealllllly interesting."

I have no idea what he is talking about. Is he really just realizing what a great idea that would be? Maybe he could make sure that there is no one preventing minorities from voting here?

[cobalt1999]

4. Not the grounds I would have used.

The Supreme court is clear on two things...

1) Political Parties can choose their delegates however they want.
2) The States own the voting process and timing.

In this battle you have a couple of states that acted within their rights to set a date but it violated a rule in the National Party. You also have a National Party that made a rule that steps on the rights of the states to set their own elections.

So who wins? Do the states have the right to set their own dates? Can the national party make a rule that violates that right? Is that overstepping their right to select how delegates are chosen? It's the murky middle that should be challenged.