****THE CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE****

[loveangelc]

What is this and how is it that Howard dean is saying whoever has the edge with pledged delegates gets the edge? they get a job in deciding what happens with FL and MI right?

[loveangelc]

1. BUMP

[lapfog_1]

2. Yup, and is proportionally represented by pledged delegates

from all candidates.

That's the good news. The bad news is that, while relatively large (I think about 160 members?) it is small compared to the total delegates. Obama should have a majority on the crucial committee, but it may be only a few votes.

Still, it's a majority. And this committee will decide whether or not to seat delegates from FL and MI.

That's what Dean was talking about the other day when he said "under the rules".

[loveangelc]

3. is it majority decides?

[lapfog_1]

4. majority of 1.

In another piece of bad news, however, Hillary supporters had already been named as the Committee Chair and sub-chair, and could pull some shenanigans... like, for example, insisting on a voice vote and recording something different than the actual vote... or having meetings at 3am (a "real" 3am phone call moment). All the things that the repukes were doing when they held the chairmanships of the House and Senate. I think Dean will ride herd on this but, well, ya never know.

[Johnny__Motown]

7. I think Pelosi has the chair, and we already know where she stands on MI & Fl

Obama defiantly wins this fight.

One more reason Hillary can't win.

[lapfog_1]

9. I heard that supporters of Clinton were named to the top three

posts in this committee, I'll dig around for the news item...

ok, got it...

Elected to chair the Credentials Committee are Alexis Herman, James Roosevelt, Jr. and Eliseo Roques-Arroyo. Alexis Herman served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1997 to 2001. She served as DNC Chief of Staff for Chairman Ron Brown and later was named CEO of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Since 2005, she has served as a Co-Chair of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee and also served as a Co-Chair of the Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling. James Roosevelt, Jr. is President and CEO of Tufts Health Plan, a Massachusetts based Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) and was formerly Associate Commissioner for Retirement Policy of the Social Security Administration in the Clinton Administration. He is the chief legal counsel for the Massachusetts Democratic Party and Co-Chair of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Eliseo Roques-Arroyo, a native of Puerto Rico, served as Executive Assistant to Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Senate Minority Leader Miguel Hernandez-Agosto and to Puerto Rico Delegate to Congress Antonio J. Colorado. He is a former Executive Director of the Democratic Party of Puerto Rico and presently a member of the DNC.

http://www.demconvention.com/dnc-elects-standing-committee-leadership-for-2008-democratic-national-convention-2/

I believe that all 3 are Super Delegates declared for Clinton.

[rainbow4321]

5. Per a Flordia newspaper link I just read in LBN

The credentials committee will be stacked in Obama's favor because it's makeup goes by pledged delegate numbers


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080308/NEWS/803080384/1146

Plans for a mail-only redo of the Democratic primary in Florida are mostly dead, a key advocate of the idea said Friday.


But the political fight is only part of the reason for the dismissal of a mail-ballot re-election. Fitzgerald said money and the fact that the state has never held such an election have also done in the idea.

If the mail election idea cannot be salvaged, it likely ends the hopes of any sort of new caucus or election to decide how Florida's delegates will be divided between Obama and Clinton. Bubriski said the mail-only primary was the "only other option" outside of appealing to the Democratic National Conventions's credentials panel in July, as national party rules dictate.

That panel would likely be stacked in Obama's favor, because members of it are apportioned based on pledged delegates.

[lapfog_1]

10. But because the representation is proportional

the "stacking" isn't all that great, expect to see Obama outnumber Hillary by only 5 to 10 votes.

[MaineDem]

6. Credentials makes a recommendation to those delegates already seated

The entire convention votes on seating these other delegations.

[RichardRay]

8. Overview

This year, the Democratic Party stripped Florida and Michigan delegates of their credentials because those states violated a party rule against holding primaries before Feb. 5. Clinton won those states, and she now says their delegations should get their credentials back. If the issue isn’t settled prior to the convention, a credentials fight could break out—the first since 1972, when anti-McGovern Democrats attempted to block him from seating his delegates. The Credentials Committee—comprising representatives of each state delegation and various party appointees—would make a recommendation to the full convention, which would vote on it. Given that most participants would be Clinton or Obama loyalists, it’s unlikely to be a calm, reasoned debate.

Nice overview at

Briefing: Convention chaos