CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
Updated Aug. 24, 2008 – 7:26 p.m.
Full Votes Restored to Florida and Michigan Delegations
By Rachel Kapochunas, CQ Staff
The credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention, on the eve of the event’s opening day in Denver, voted Sunday without dissent to restore full voting privileges to the delegations from Florida and Michigan.
The actions, taken during a meeting at the host city’s Colorado Convention Center, put a final touch to a long-running and bruising dispute over the decisions by officials in both states to hold their presidential primaries in January, in violation of Democratic National Committee (DNC) scheduling rules. The DNC initially barred all of Michigan’s and Florida’s delegates from the convention, then in late May allowed all of the state’s delegates to attend, but with a half-vote apiece.
California Rep. Barbara Lee , a member of the Credentials Committee noted that she and many others agreed with Obama’s support for the resolution to help unify the party.
“I think this is a very fair and just resolve, and I’m very pleased and excited that Florida and Michigan will be seated with full voting rights,” Lee said.
Delegates such as Mark Miller from Kalamazoo, Mich., agreed the decision was necessary so as not to “demoralize” delegates and other representatives from his home state.
“Symbolically, the restoration of the full vote does mean a lot to people,” Mark Bubriski, Obama’s Florida Communications Director said prior to the expected vote outcome. “It enables Democrats to put that behind us and move on to what’s most important, which is electing a Democratic president.”
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin said that his state “succeeded in challenging the system.” He added that Michigan’s effort proved “you can challenge the system which doesn’t work well and you can land on your feet.” Levin said he wasn’t concerned the penalties damaged Obama’s chances in Michigan because he believes that McCain has failed to win over voters because he’s shown himself to be “ignorant” of the state’s economic situation.
Former state party chairman, Scott Maddox addressed the committee prior to the vote, thanking committee members as well as Clinton and Obama, who backed the full seating of Florida and Michigan, “For bringing the sun back out in this process for Florida.”
Both states moved their primaries earlier in the calendar in the hopes of exerting more influence on the presidential nominating process. Michigan moved their primary to Jan. 5 and Florida scheduled a contest for Jan. 29.
In an effort to preserve New Hampshire’s “first in the nation” primary and Iowa’s “first in the nation caucus” as well as establish order in the nominating process, DNC rules stipulated that all but a select number of states would be penalized delegate for holding a primary earlier than Feb. 5 and candidates who campaigned in those states would forfeit remaining delegates received.
Candidates voluntarily signed a pledge not to campaign in states that violated scheduling rules, effectively shutting Florida and Michigan out of primary season.
While party leaders such as Levin hailed their decision to hold fast to their primary move as a success, some delegates, such as Miller, said his state’s hopes of positioning themselves as a crucial state in the nominating process backfired.
“We had no candidates, no campaign, no addressing of Michigan’s issues by the presidential candidates at the time,” Miller recently told CQ Politics.
Obama and most major party candidates pulled their names off Michigan’s ballot entirely. Clinton chose not to remove her name and carried the state with 55 percent of the vote. Another 40 percent of voters cast ballots for “uncommitted.”
In Florida, candidate names remained on the ballot though they did not campaign in the state. Clinton won the Florida contest over Obama by 50 percent to 33 percent.
Bubriski said Obama was forced to virtually “start from scratch” in Florida. “Because of the early state pledge . . . Barack Obama is not as well known to the people of Florida as he is in a lot of other states or as John McCain is to people in Florida,” Bubriski said, but added that the senator quickly gained ground in the state and has established an aggressive operation in the state.
The situation divided Clinton and Obama supporters in the state who argued over how to allocate delegates to candidates who did not campaign and in Michigan, how to rectify the situation despite Obama’s name not appearing on the state ballot. A compromise was reached in Michigan allocated 10 more delegates to Clinton and in Florida, delegates were allocated according to the primary results.
Bubriski noted that after the primary, some delegates expressed frustration with the primary situation but added, “I think time has helped heal the hard feelings.”
Many states have been critical of the lock New Hampshire and Iowa have had on the primary system. Levin suggested that in the future, the DNC Rules committee should “enforce their own rules” and not hand out waivers to select states. He also suggested that alternative systems, such as a rotating schedule, may alleviate the problems of primary scheduling.
The dates chosen by Florida and Michigan also violated Republican National Committee (RNC) rules but Republicans chose to dock states half a delegate, held fast to that plan, and did not prohibit candidates from campaigning in those states. But among the states Republicans penalized was New Hampshire, traditionally the “first in the nation” primary.
Republicans avoided the dragged-out fight waged on the Democratic side. Looking back on the delegate fight, one Democratic strategist suggested, “If the DNC had shown some leadership instead of allowing the leaders of the early states drive the train, we could have preserved the historical early states and also prevented the mess.”
Republicans are expected to fully reinstate Florida and Michigan’s delegates prior to their convention, which kicks off in Minneapolis- St. Paul Sept. 1.
First posted Aug. 24, 2008 2:47 p.m.
Comments
Another audacious move. It is too little, too late. It is very convenient that everything is restored today. I guess they truly believe we will forget that Howard Dean, DNC, Barack Obama did not care about us on 5/31 or when the ridiculous line in the sand, with a Republican controlled state legislature, was drawn. It was HRC country and they got there way. I will vote for Mc Cain.
Elaine, I understand your anger. May I ask you, though; how would you feel if your vote resulted in giving back the White House to this Rovian gang who have done their level best to damage everything we hold dear about the US? If you are a real person and not a troll or part of Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos", I ask you to look into your heart and find forgiveness for the dirty tricks of the primary campaign. Remember how Nader voters lost us the 2000 election and set the stage for us to be dragged into a ridiculously expensive and horrific war. Please ask yourself how you felt about them then and how you honestly would feel two years from now if President McCain did something similar. Ask youself how you would feel if another Alito replaces Ginsberg or Stevens on the Supreme Court. Ask yourself if we can honestly afford another term of these guys. Dean, the DNC and Obama may all be guilty of beating up Hillary. But they are still our allies and support the same causes we do. We must not cut off our own nose to spite our face. Peace
There is something really scary going on here...I sense an evil undercurrent that is going on to have Obama elected no matter what....and this is one of the things they decided to do to make sure Hillary would not get the nod.....Please America wake up!!! I did not vote for Bush either time but I will not vote for someone as leftist as Obama is with an scary underground determined to undermine our system and have him put in office....Please, Please wake up!!! Go to "We will not be silenced" website and check out the fraud in the caucuses also....Scary, Scary stuff!!
lBillkapra: The thing you fail to realize, is that The actions of Dean, Pelosi, Brazile, The Dnc and Obama, is what is going to cause The White House to remain in the hands of The Republicans. I am ashamed to call myself a Democrat, right now. If this behavior, is allowed to go unpunished,then what will they do the next time? Tell you not to even show-up to vote at all, that The DNC, and their big-shots will just place your vote for you. Because to be truthful, that is how I feel at this moment, that my vote and my voice, are worth no more than a dog-turd in a alleyway.
It's my understanding that the delegates were not going to count because the Michigan dem leaders defied the rules and held the primary when they felt like it, as opposed to when the Dem party leadership wanted it held. So the real lesson here is that rules don't count if one stamps their feet and pouts long enough. I hope all the states decide to hold it on Jan 1 next cycle so that this issue of who gets to be first is denied. Of course that will only serve to nullify the idea of a national campaign, which is apparently what the selfish Michigan Dems are shooting for anyway since it is their way or the highway.
I still don't understand everyone getting their tutus twisted. It's a rigged game that allows you to think you have a say so about your representative government. It's a contrived rigged fiasco. Don't vote without an accountable transparant voting system. Till then your efforts, hopes and dreams are futile.
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