DNC strips Fla. of delegates -- primary wouldn't count
The Democratic Party has taken a swipe at the nation's fourth biggest state, stripping Florida of all of its '08 delegates as punishment for jumping the gun with its Jan. 29 primary. Florida's early date could force other states to move up and up to stay at the front of the pack.
Under a nearly unanimous vote taken moments ago by a powerful committee of the Democratic National Committee, if things don’t change, Florida’s primary will be a "beauty contest" — the delegates won’t count toward the party’s presidential nomination.
Florida officials complained that the DNC was going to "disenfranchise voters," as it says on the state party's home page. The DNC pushed back strongly against that contention, since it has rules that Florida decided not to follow.
This is the party’s way of trying to stop the crazy domino effect of states moving their nominating contests earlier and earlier, which causes OTHER states to go earlier and earlier.
The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee voted nearly unanimously that Florida’s plan is noncompliant with party rules, and gave the state 30 days to fix it. Otherwise, the state will lose 100 percent of its delegates.
Once of the silliest comments to the first post, listed above, was this:
How can they "hand it over" to the Republicans? This election is a PRIMARY?
U.R. Confused | 08.26.07 - 5:30 pm
To which another commenter beat me to the punch by answering:
I for one am tickled that the Democrats are trying to force their rules on Florida. Florida has been a crucial state in the past two elections and will be (along with Ohio) in the 2008 election. This move should alienate just enough of the Florida electorate to hand the states 27 electoral votes to the Republicans. GREAT!
Al Gibbs | 08.26.07 - 5:32 pm |
Despite the fact that we are talking primaries here, Floridians are letting their feelings be known in the latest poll from Quinnipiac University:
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has taken back the lead over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton 46 - 43 percent in Florida, reversing a 46 - 43 percent Clinton lead two weeks ago, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.
Giuliani still dominates a Republican primary, with 30 percent, but Arizona Sen. John McCain has bounced back to 14 percent, tying former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 12 percent. This compares to an October 10 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University which showed Giuliani with 27 percent, Thompson with 19 percent, Romney with 17 percent and McCain trailing with 8 percent.
Sen. Clinton leads a Democratic primary with 43 percent, down from 51 percent October 10, while Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's 18 percent is little changed. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards gets 12 percent.
Among Florida's independent voters, 22 percent say they are less likely to vote for a Democrat for president because of the Democratic National Committee's decision to strip the state of its national convention delegates because of Florida's early presidential primary.
Not only has Rudy Giuliani taken the lead but Hillary Clinton has dropped 8 points since October 10th, 2007 (just 15 days ago).
By a 62 - 16 percent margin, Florida voters say the Democratic National Committee is wrong to strip Florida of its nominating convention delegates because state lawmakers set the presidential primary for January 29, a week before DNC rules. Feelings are consistent among Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.
Florida is an important state in presidential elections and the DNC has blown it badly here, but it gets worse because they have also blown it and angered the Michigan voters as well, which we showed you on October 10, 2007:
Yesterday we discussed 5 Democratic Presidential candidates shunning Michigan and how it would affect the 2008 elections and today we see that only four officially pulled out, because number five, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, tried to file, twice, but couldn't seem to get the paperwork right by the deadline. (He wants to be president? LOL)
We then showed examples of the ire that these candidates were receiving from the Michigan voters:
Michigan Liberal:Leave it to the disorganized Democrats to make a mess of their own presidential primary process.
[...]
The RNC told Michigan Republicans that they would lose half of their nominating delegates at their convention. Despite the penalty, all of the Republicans came to Michigan to debate last night, and all of them continue to campaign here.
As usual, the Democrats can’t seem to make up their minds. The Republicans roll on as if everything were normal regardless of how abnormal things are actually going. The Democrats find ways to hobble themselves by alienating their core supporters. Sounds a lot like the Democratic Party I’ve come to know.
[...]
Until the primary process is reformed to make it more equitable for all states, we’re stuck with this hodgepodge mess. Meanwhile, Michigan has been rendered irrelevant on the Democratic side. Even if the state Democratic party does (as has been suggested) cancel the primary, change to a caucus, and move the date back to February, that puts us back where we started: largely ignored except for fundraising and taken for granted.
From Blogging for Michigan we see that Hillary Clinton doesn't even need to remove her name from the ballot because:"It's unnecessary" to remove her name from the ballot, spokesman Mo Elleithee said, because she has already signed a pledge not to campaign in Michigan or other states violating the national party's scheduling rules.
Democratic national committeewoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Dingell calls it a "cheap political trick".A leading Michigan Democrat called the decision by four presidential contenders to pull their names off the state ballot “a cheap political trick,” but said there will be a Jan. 15 primary regardless of who is left to run.
“I’m livid,” said Debbie Dingell, a Democratic national committeewoman and wife of U.S. Rep. John Dingell. “What they don’t realize is they’re not running for president of Iowa, they’re running for president of the United States.”
From the comment section of Blogging from Michigan:there are two options - Michigan can cave in and move it's primary back behind Iowa, and all those candidates will put their names back on the ballot, but why would we want to vote for any of them? They are off my list. Or, we could stay with the early date, and what candidates are left, and if we choose Hillary, we will just be rubberstamping Iowa, from the sounds of it, so why bother, and if we pick Kucinich, just because he's there, he won't win anyway, so why bother. Right now I am so disappointed in the Democratic party, I am not sure I even consider myself a Democrat anymore. I will never donate money to a candidate again, that is for certain, however this is resolved. I could never vote Republican, I'm really not liberal enough to be Green - maybe I just won't vote.
The next comment:I unsubscribed from their e-mailing lists today. Never was on a Biden one (does he even have one?)
If they're not coming here, I no longer care what happens to them. Good riddance.
And if we end up having a caucus and they participate, I'm not voting for them.
Those are a small sample of the early reactions to this issue and it is only one day after the reports of the four withdrawing their names.
The Democratic politicians and the DNC continue to show the unique ability of shooting themselves in the foot, over and over again as well as proving to have horrible judgment by underestimating the ire of the voters in the states they need.
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