Howard Dean Determined, if it is Appeasing, to Seat Florida Delegates
Howard Dean, in another typical bleeding heart liberal feel good move, said that he was committed to seating the Florida Delegates, as long as the Clinton and Obama camps agree to the seating. Which essentially means nothing.
This from MSNBC:
Sphere: Related ContentDemocratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said Wednesday the party was committed to seating Florida’s delegates at this summer’s convention as long as any agreement is supported by the party’s two presidential contenders.
Dean met with Florida lawmakers to discuss ways of allocating delegates among Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton and prepare for the fall campaign in the battleground state.
The party stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates to the national convention in Denver because they ignored party rules and moved their primaries to January.
Clinton Wants Votes to Count in Michigan and Florida
During a press conference that took place on Wednesday, the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq war, Sen. Hillary Clinton challenged the democratic party and Sen. Barack Obama to count the votes in Michigan and Florida or have redo primaries in those two states. Clinton stated that it doesn’t matter who won the primaries or the redo primaries, what is important that every vote counts, and that for them not to is Un-American. On this Sen. Clinton is completely right, she pointed out that more people in Michigan and Florida voted in there no count primary than voted in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada. Around 2.5 million people voted in the Florida and Michigan Primaries, that is a lot of votes for them not to count.
Michigan and Florida held primaries in January, but the national party stripped them of their delegates for scheduling their contests too early.
Michigan had 156 Democratic delegates at stake and Florida had 211.
Florida has nixed the idea of a revote, but a proposal for a June 3 election in Michigan is under consideration.
Looking ahead to the general election, Clinton said ignoring the votes in Michigan and Florida would be a “grave mistake.”
“The road to a Democratic White House goes through Michigan and Florida, and if Democrats send the message that we don’t care about your votes, I’m sure John McCain and the Republicans would be happy to have them,” she said.
Clinton, who was the only main contender on the ballot in Michigan, won with 55 percent of the vote. Some 40 percent of Democrats in the state filed ballots declaring themselves “uncommitted.”
After the Democratic National Committee’s decision, Obama was among the Democratic presidential contenders who had their names taken off Michigan’s ballot.
“When others made the decision to remove their names from the ballot, I didn’t, because I believed your voices and your votes should count,” Clinton said.
Michigan’s Democratic leaders want their delegates seated, but the party has been unable to reach a consensus on how to handle them.
Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor on Tuesday said, “The Clinton campaign favors whatever they think will benefit them.”
Shortly before Clinton’s speech, the Obama camp released a letter outlining concerns it had with a potential revote in Michigan.
“There are such questions and they are serious both in nature and in their potential, if not likely, impact on the June election proposal,” Obama counsel Robert F. Bauer said in the letter.
Source: CNN
Photo Source: MSNBC
Sphere: Related ContentNo Go On Florida “Redo”?
According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida Democrat legislature is against the mail-in vote/poll vote primary option. Robert Wexler, one of the detractors of the redo is an Obama supporter, says that he knows it will not happen (the redo). The Democratic party chairwoman Kathy Thurman, says that both the Clinton Campaign and the Obama Campaign have to agree on the terms. This looks overall like an attempt of the Obama campaign to try and not let Florida votes count, because they may not favor Obama, though that is very petty. Though, petty and politics seem to be pretty good friends. The Clinton campaign has reservations about the mail in part of the redo primary.
Sphere: Related ContentFlorida’s Democratic leaders Thursday all but pulled the plug on the day-old idea of a mail-in mulligan election to ensure the state gets a say in the historic battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. State party officials said they have just a few days to get fighting factions to embrace a new round of voting that would end on June 3.
“I know that it won’t happen,” said U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Boca Raton Democrat and Obama supporter. All nine of Florida’s Democrats in the U.S. House reiterated their strong opposition to the re-vote plan on Thursday.
Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman added at a news conference in the state capital: “I have the feeling it’s getting closer to no than yes.”
The re-vote plan submitted late Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee would involve mailing ballots to the state’s 4.1 million Democrats. There would also be 50 regional voting centers where people could vote in person or drop off their mail ballots. The $10 million to $12 million cost would be underwritten by private donations, party officials said.
While the state party would hire private election and accounting firms to handle the balloting, the state is needed to play an oversight role in verifying signatures to authenticate the ballots.
Republican Gov. Charlie Crist pledged Thursday to provide that help as long as there’s consensus behind the plan and the state’s role is “reasonable and within applicable Florida law,” spokeswoman Erin Isaac said.
Time is short. Party leaders need a consensus to move forward by Monday, state Democratic officials said, in order to comply with a 30-day comment period and leave enough time to mail ballots to military members serving overseas.
But the mechanics of a re-vote might be moot with Democrats in South Florida, Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., predicting it won’t happen.
Florida Democrats Have A Plan
The Florida Democratic Party has devised a plan for a “do over” primary to take place on June 3rd. The proposed primary would be a combination of mail in and poll balloting.
The Obama campaign is against this and doesn’t want the Florida delegates seated (mainly because it probably will not benefit Obama), though the Florida democratic party is trying to go through with the plan.
Sphere: Related Content(CNN) — Florida Democrats want a do-over, and state party officials have a proposal for recouping the 210 delegates that the Sunshine State lost when it moved its primary ahead of the approved time frame.
The party is proposing a combination mail-in and in-person election to be held June 3. Fundraising and public comment would begin immediately.
“The plan would be inclusive of all Democratic voters,” according to a memo accompanying the draft plan that was sent Wednesday night to party leaders, including Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the party’s candidates for the presidential nomination.
Any plan would need the blessings of the DNC and the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
The proposal could prove problematic because Florida law bans the state from conducting elections by mail.
State party officials could outsource the election operations to a third party, but the company would need voters’ signatures to verify the voter rolls. In Florida, it is illegal to sell voters’ signatures.
Dean said Thursday he had not yet seen the proposal, but acknowledged that it isn’t perfect.
“Of course there are going to be problems,” he said, explaining that is why state party officials are floating a proposal — to get the kinks out
The cost for the proposed elections would be between $10 million and $12 million, according to the state party memo.
Howard Dean Suggests Mail In Option
Howard Dean has suggested that Florida and Michigan “redo” their primaries through a mail in vote. This sounds like a another terrible idea from the DNC and leaves plenty of room for problems. Dean says the problem is who is going to pay for it?
This might be Dean’s answer, the Governor of New Jersey Jon Corzine, and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell have offered to help raise money for the possible “redo’s” of both states. Both Corzine and Rendell are Clinton supporters.
WASHINGTON - A consensus began to emerge Sunday that the best way to give Florida’s Democrats a voice in electing a candidate for president lies with the U.S. Postal Service.
But the disqualification of Florida and Michigan has created a headache for the Democratic party due to the unexpected closeness of the race between Obama and Clinton. Officials from both states are trying to figure out how best to resolve the issue before the national convention in August.
DNC Chairman Howard Dean said a mail-in primary is “actually a very good process.”
“Every voter gets a ballot in the mail,” the former Vermont governor said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “It’s comprehensive, you get to vote if you’re in Iraq or in a nursing home. It’s not a bad way to do this.”
As for who pays, Dean said, “That is a problem,” reiterating that the party needs its money for the general election campaign against Republican John McCain.
He also ruled out the state of Florida, where Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has nixed the idea. Dean suggested the state Democratic party might foot the bill. Florida’s political parties, unlike the DNC, can accept unlimited contributions.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., supports the mail-in solution, comparing it to an absentee ballot process. He also pinned his hopes on the state party to pay for it.
“Since Governor Dean has said he’s not going to do it in the DNC, the Florida Democratic Party’s going to have to go out and raise the money,” he said. “We’re looking at about $6 million.”
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., appeared to be amenable to a mail-in solution for his state, though with less enthusiasm.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Levin said doing the election again would be against state law. “That can’t be changed, and that can’t be paid for,” he said. Levin also said caucuses would be difficult, with 500 potential sites.
Source: MSNBC
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The Florida And Michigan Democratic Conundrum
It appears that they may have democratic primaries in Florida and Michigan. Wait, they already have but they didn’t count. So that would mean that Democratic National Committee (DNC) are weighing options and considering having primaries in those two states again. There are several problems with this idea. First though, lets see how this came about.
For those of you who don’t know, Michigan and Florida were penalized because they had their primaries before February 5th by both parties. South Carolina, Michigan, Florida, New Hampshire, and Wyoming were penalized by the Republican National Committee (RNC) by having half of their delegates taken away for each state. The DNC decided to allow to count Nevada and South Carolina for their “diversity” and not count Florida and Michigan because of their who knows what. This was a terrible idea by the DNC, absolutely ridiculous. The RNC didn’t come through with a great idea either, but it was better than the DNC’s decision. The reason for the penalties is that the early voting takes prestige away from the Iowa and New Hampshire contests. Talk about thinking in the past.
Florida and Michigan are together have around 300 delegates, which could make a difference in the race, or at least get both candidates closer to the “magic” number of 2025 delegates. It seems both Clinton and Obama are going to fall short of the “magic” number, if voting trends stay the same.
The case for having another primary is stronger in Michigan, seeing as Barack Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot. Though, people did have other candidates to chose from (Kucinich, Gravel) granted they weren’t front-running candidates, but to say that Clinton was the only name on the ballot, isn’t true. Also, it is Obama’s fault that his name wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan, so why not seat the delegates and it is his loss.
There is almost no case for having another vote in Florida, seeing as Obama’s name was on the ballot, even though neither candidate really campaigned there.
Yes, it may have been against the rules for them to hold their primary early in Michigan and Florida, but it happened, now deal with it fairly.
If the DNC was like hey guess what, even though we have had a record turn out in the Primaries in both states, your vote doesn’t count, we are going to have another contest either a Primary or Caucus, so go vote again, and if we like the results, we will count it. If I were a democratic voter in Florida, or Michigan , I would make sure my vote would never count again in a democratic primary or for the Democratic Party for that matter, and vote for another parties candidate to make it count. Of course, that is just me and I don’t speak for voters everywhere.
How are the voters, that went and voted for anyone in these primaries going to react to this? Also, how much is this going to cost and who is going to pay for it? Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC states that the DNC isn’t going to pay for it, the Governor of Florida, says that Florida will not pay for it. Michigan is still on the fence.
What this comes down to is that the DNC did not expect this to still be a race and are unprepared to deal with it. They thought that they could penalize these States and that it wouldn’t matter in the big picture. That all would be said and done by this point and at the convention in Denver they could seat the Michigan and Florida delegates and no harm no foul. Now they have to deal with this somehow, and there is no way to fairly redo the primary.
If they do have a “redo” of Florida and Michigan, and they actually can get people to vote, if Clinton doesn’t win both , her campaign will they that it isn’t fair to her seeing as she already has won the states according to the first vote. If they don’t have a “redo” at least in Michigan, Obama can cry foul because his name wasn’t on the ballot (even though that was his choice). However this ends, either Clinton or Obama are going to feel jilted, because there is no correct way to do this, and the DNC didn’t deal with it correctly to begin with, so the process will be wrong in the end.
Sphere: Related ContentDNC Urges Michigan & Florida To Hold Caucuses
Let the battle over Michigan and Florida begin. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is recommending Florida and Michigan to hold caucuses now to get their delegates back that were lost. This seems rather backhanded, considering both states did have a Democratic Primary that Hillary Clinton won pretty handily, even though she ran against uncommitted in Michigan. Clinton will have a case to argue over with the DNC if these caucused take place and even more of one, if she loses those caucuses to Obama this race being so close.
Howard Dean (Chairman of DNC) is trying to keep the Superdelegates out of the spotlight, because that is a potentially huge scandal waiting to happen and the less publicized the Superdelegates are the better for the Democratic Party. Howard Dean has stated that if the Presidential race makes it to the Democratic convention without a winner that he might ask one of the candidates to step down. There is to much going on behind the scenes in the Democratic Party.
LANSING, Mich. — The Democratic National Committee is pressuring Michigan and Florida to hold Democratic presidential caucuses so the delegates they’ve lost for holding January primaries could be seated at the national convention, a top Michigan Democrat said Wednesday.
DNC member Debbie Dingell said it’s unclear whether either state would hold caucuses since they’ve already held primaries. But she said the DNC is asking the two states to consider such a plan.
But Michigan Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer said the DNC isn’t saying anything it hasn’t said before to Michigan and Florida.
”Everybody involved, the candidates, the DNC and we, need to remain open-minded. So if someone comes up with a creative way that meets everyone’s interests, we can do that” and get the delegates seated, he said.
Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski agreed with Brewer that the DNC’s position isn’t new. But he said the party has no intention of holding another election.
”We’ve said all along that we’re going forward with our delegate selection program using the vote on Jan. 29,” he said. ”We’ve got more delegate applications than ever.”
The decision could end up being made at the August Democratic National Convention in Denver, which makes the question over whether the Michigan and Florida delegates are seated an important strategic point.
It’s unlikely that Clinton would favor holding caucuses, which could open the door to Obama victories in two states she already has won. But there’s also pressure to hold some kind of alternative election that meets DNC rules so the states don’t have to wait to find out if the delegates are to be seated.
Source: Fox News
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Romney Will Carry On Despite Losing Florida
Mitt Romney fans have no fear he is staying in the race until the end.
Republican Mitt Romney, his family and supporters vowed to carry his campaign into the vote-rich Super Tuesday contests next week after narrowly losing Florida’s primary to rival John McCain.
In his concession speech Tuesday night, Romney issued a call to arms to conservatives to support him, vowing to cut federal spending, end illegal immigration and teach children “that before they have babies, they should get married.”
Source: MSNBC
Sphere: Related ContentPossibility That Guliani Might Endorse McCain
The rumor spreading around the internet is that Rudy Giuliani will endorse John McCain as early as Wednesday in either Los Angeles or Simi Valley. This is just a rumor, but with Giuliani set to be in California tomorrow, it might hold true. Stay posted to find out.
Sphere: Related ContentJohn McCain Wins Florida Republican Primary, Hillary Clinton Wins Florida Democratic Primary
Update: The Florida Primary has been called and John McCain has been projected as the winner with 58% of the vote being counted.
1. John McCain- 37%
2. Mitt Romney- 31%
3. Rudy Giuliani- 15%
4. Mike Huckabee- 13%
5. Ron Paul- 3%
With Florida votes starting to be counted, 41%of the Republican ballots has been tallied. Right now, these are the for the Republican Primary, with it being too close to call.
1. John McCain - 34%
2. Mitt Romney- 32%
3. Rudy Giuliani- 15%
4. Mike Huckabee- 13%
5. Ron Paul - 3%
The Florida Democratic Primary is a different story. Hillary Clinton has been projected to win. With 41% of the ballots counted,and a surprising number of votes for a race that doesn’t count. Expect Clinton to challenge the Democratic ruling to get the Delegates from Florida Reinstated.
1. Hillary Clinton- 49%
2. Barack Obama- 29%
3. John Edwards- 15%
Sphere: Related ContentRomney and McCain Obviously Can’t Stand One Another
As the Florida Primary approaches, John McCain and Mitt Romney are celebrating their status at the top of the polls by talking bad about each other. McCain is calling Romney a Flip-Flopper, and Romney is calling McCain a liberal. The two have been volleying back and forth all day. Romney called McCain a liar at one point and then recanted his statement saying that McCain was being dishonest about something that he had said about Romney.
Romney, a former venture capitalist promoting his business savvy as an asset, has been provoking McCain over past statements the Arizona senator has made acknowledging a limited expertise on the economy.
In turn, McCain is shoving in his opponent’s face a comment Romney made suggesting U.S. and Iraqi leaders should set a secret timetable for U.S. soldiers to withdraw.
The former Massachusetts governor ignited a new verbal missile on Sunday, hitting his rival over the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which Romney says would depress the economy, rather than stimulate it. “His plan calls for a new financial burden to be placed on people who are purchasing gasoline or, for that matter, natural gas to heat their homes or to cook in their homes. The Energy Information Agency has said that his plan would cost America 300,000 jobs. In addition, people would pay, they estimate, approximately 50 cents per gallon more for gasoline and 20 percent more for their gas utility bill,” Romney told a rally of about 300 mostly Hispanic voters in Sweetwater, Fla.
“He sort of feels that maybe America should pay for global warming. Don’t you understand? They don’t call it America warming. They call it global warming,” he said.
But McCain launched a counter-attack on Romney’s economic turf, saying the former Massachusetts governor, didn’t do such a great job as executive for his state.
Gov. Romney’s record in Massachusetts shows the state “had the 3rd lowest job creation, where they had $730 million in tax increases, where they had more manufacturing jobs flee the state of Massachusetts than almost double the national average and now a health care mandate that’s $245 million dollars in the red,” McCain said at a town hall meeting in Polk City. “I’d be glad to compete and debate on those issues. My record on the economy is very strong — from being part of the Reagan revolution to cut taxes and restrain spending to my latest efforts that I have been involved in as chairman of the Commerce Committee and many other economic issues.”
McCain defended himself when a questioner challenged the Arizona senator’s votes in 2001 and 2003 against Bush administration tax cuts. McCain now says those tax cuts should be made permanent.
“I opposed the tax cuts because I saw no restraint in the growth of spending. We let spending get out of control,” he said.
Plan on this getting even more heated over the next week.
Source: Fox News
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain-Romney Dead Even In Florida
Republican Front Runners John McCain and Mitt Romney are dead locked in the most recent Quinnepiac University Poll. Florida is going to be a race to the end, there may be no calling this one early like the last few primaries have been.
Mitt Romney and John McCain are virtually tied for the lead in a new poll of Florida voters and they are well ahead of Rudy Giuliani — who is banking on winning in The Sunshine State to win the GOP nomination.
The latest Quinnipiac University poll shows McCain with 32 percent, Romney with 31 percent — within the poll’s 4.1 percent margin of error. Giuliani trails with 14 percent, and Mike Huckabee follows soon after with 13 percent.
The poll shows depleting support for Rudy Giuliani and surging support for Romney since the last time it looked at Florida on Jan. 14, when McCain held 22 percent of the poll; Giuliani, 20 percent; and Romney and Huckabee tied for 19 percent.
Source: Fox News
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