DCCC Worried About Florida, Michigan, Too

Another piece of info to drop into the swirling winds surrounding Florida and Michigan:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting several Republican House seats in both states (FL-08, FL-09, FL-13, FL-24, MI-07, MI-9).

Democratic strategists are worried about the DNC's tough no-compromise-on-the-rules stance and want a compromise.

Dem candidates in these districts are getting pummeled in town hall meetings on the subjects of getting their delegates seated.

And many of their major donors are beginning to pressure them to pressure the presidential candidates.

Comments

Sucks. Probably should have thought about that before flaunting the rules everyone else agreed to play by. As I said yesterday, think about how important the FL and MI primaries would have been if they had been left where they were. Karma, hilarious and delicious.

I had been wondering how we were going to blow the election this year. Between this and Hillary's death march, now I know.

Posted by Jeff Hussein Larson | March 6, 2008 1:28 PM

To sum up my earlier thought, "And this is why you don't break party rules."

Posted by Jeff Hussein Larson | March 6, 2008 1:31 PM

Hussein, but is it nutritious?

Posted by Jay | March 6, 2008 1:38 PM

This is why the party needs to wake up and line up with Obama, stick to the agreed upon rules, then when HRC drops out seat the delegates as is.

Posted by Tom Enever | March 6, 2008 1:39 PM

"And this is why you don't break party rules."

You mean, this is why you don't break New Hampshire and Iowa's dysfunctional death grip on the presidential process.

Heaven forbid, giving Michigan a voice might make manufactoring jobs more of a priority than corn subsidies.

Look, this is without a doubt the fault of the DNC. States have every right to decide when they want to have their elections.

Posted by Jesse | March 6, 2008 1:44 PM

P.S. - Those of us in the McCain camp are laughing at this little "release the returns" bussiness because we are still waiting for Obama to release every years worth of ear mark requests since he has been in the senate. We've already released McCain's (it was $0).

Posted by Jesse | March 6, 2008 1:46 PM

Earmarks data is already publicly available. I don't recall the exact numbers, but it's come up in a Dem debate. Obama's total for 2007 was greater than $0, but well below Clinton's.

Remember, earmarks aren't always evil and bad. They're bad when they exist to pay back political favors or waste taxpayer dollars on things like the Alaskan "bridge to nowhere" (the ultimate poster child for bad earmarks). They're not bad when they exist to fulfill the obligation that every Congressman has to their constituents, and provide necessary funding for worthy programs to benefit people in their home communities.

This is the logic behind the Obama-sponsored law that created what he calls "Google for Government", where you can search exactly where tax dollars go, who sponsored the earmarks, etc. It allows concerned citizens / media to find the bad ones.

Posted by TH | March 6, 2008 2:02 PM

Dean is open to new primaries, so what's the beef? All the states have to do is come up with $20 million. It's not like the DNC, and by extension all the other democrats, should be stuck paying for Florida and Michigan's fuck up.

"Dem candidates in these districts are getting pummeled in town hall meetings on the subjects of getting their delegates seated."

Yeah, right. Which Clinton campaign worker sent you that little tidbit? I'm sure the Obama fans down there are just tearing at the candidates to demand a new primary.

Posted by Helter | March 6, 2008 2:02 PM

I'm amazed that nobody has pointed out the obvious; an "uncontaminated" re-do in Florida is not possible, given that Clinton has postured herself as the champion of Florida's disenfranchised, Michigan only a little less so.

If I were Obama, I would simply rule out a re-do and force the DNC to impose a 50/50 split of these states' delegates and seat them.

Posted by anonymous | March 6, 2008 2:19 PM

"And many of their major donors are beginning to pressure them to pressure the presidential candidates."

Major donors? Clinton raised 35 odd million in Feb. Obama is hinting that his may be as high as 50 million. Millions of people giving $100 a piece beats a bunch of bigwigs writing big checks. The DNC has absolutely no leverage to make either of these candidates to something they are not inclined to do.

Posted by Adam | March 6, 2008 2:21 PM

Dumbasses. It was the Republican Florida governor who insisted that he would veto any proposition by the Dems to hold their primary on any date other than early Jan.

Posted by Rex | March 6, 2008 2:24 PM

we are still waiting for Obama to release every years worth of ear mark requests

Earmarks are one of the most overblown straw man issues I can think of. They account for such a tiny percentage of spending, yet make for juicy soundbites for politicians, so they're trotted out on a regular basis. If you're a low information voter, that's a great issue for you.

Posted by Heinrich | March 6, 2008 2:24 PM

Dem candidates in these districts are getting pummeled in town hall meetings on the subjects of getting their delegates seated.

Is this something Democratic voters in Florida actually care about, other than as a proxy for their support for Clinton? Not that Clinton supporters aren't entitled to make that argument, but I would find it surprising that an undecided Democratic voter in Florida would actually feel that strongly about a matter of convention procedure.

Posted by alkali | March 6, 2008 2:25 PM

Ok DCCC, if HRC is allowed to steal this from Obama, can you win seats without the African American vote?

Posted by Kim | March 6, 2008 2:51 PM

A re-do is not necessarily bad for Obama. He needs to prove he can win in one of the really big states other than Illinois. (True, some of them, like New York and California, will almost certainly go for whoever the Democrats nominate, and Texas will almost certainly go for McCain in any event, but Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania were close in 2004 and might agin be close in 2008. Even New Jersey can't be taken for granted by the Democrats, nor Florida by the GOP.) I believe that a re-vote in Florida and Michigan will lead to Obama winning in Michigan (even "Uncommitted" did respectably there) with its large African American vote, and even in Florida he will do better than he did in the first "illegal" primary. If he wins Michigan and improves on his former showing in Florida, there will be no excuse for undecided superdelegates not to go for him, if he has a majority of pledged delegates.

A re-do will help clear the air and make whoever wins more "legitimate" in the eyes of those who supported the other candidate. It will also make voters in Michigan and Florida less bitter about the Democrats in November.

Posted by David T | March 6, 2008 3:00 PM

"A re-do will help clear the air and make whoever wins more "legitimate" in the eyes of those who supported the other candidate."

Whatever the emotional merits, the reality of cost intrudes. Hillary's campaign doesn't want to pay for it. The DNC doesn't want to pay for it, and Obama's supporters don't want to pay for it. The state legislatures won't want to pay for it (because they have lots of republican and Obama-supporters to outvote Clinton supporters).

So who is going to pay the costs of the new primaries?

Posted by Helter | March 6, 2008 3:33 PM

I just sent the following letter to Sen. Bill Nelson and other Florida DNC members. More letters from from other supporters will follow. Michigan and Florida, do your part! Call, write, email, speak up!!!

This is what I wrote...

This past week, with talk of a re-vote in Florida, I've spoken with fellow Obama supporters in the Boca-Delray, FL area (at least 114 of them). We are now planning to meet, grow our group, and protest any decision by the DNC to unfairly seat Florida delegates! Our position is this:

In both Michigan and Florida, RULES WERE BROKEN. Hillary Clinton wants to ignore the rules and count the votes anyway. This is outrageous! If Florida cannot afford to pay for a second vote, then so be it. Florida broke the rules, not the DNC. This is Florida's problem!

Spilt the votes 50/50 and move onto the general election, or else DO NOT seat the delegates. There is no way to count the votes from an unfair election! In Michigan, only Clinton's name was on the ballot, and here in Florida, neither candidate was allowed to campaign, which severely handicapped the lesser-known Obama.

Hillary Clinton is a cheat and a liar. She went right along with the DNC plan up until she learned that she was going to win here. Then suddenly, she was concerned about "people's voices being heard."

The bottom line is this: Obama supporters will never forgive Hillary Clinton or the FL DNC for stealing the nomination if the delegates are unfairly seated. We will vote for Ralph Nader in November. Some of us are Dems, others Independents. We are loyal to Obama, not the Democratic Party. If this is handled poorly, you will lose our vote.

Posted by Mia | March 6, 2008 3:56 PM

Helter,

That's the best point. Who pays for new contests? It sounds like no entity wants to pay for it. And that is the problem. It seems to me that Clinton is in the tightest bind here because there really in no possbile path to the nomination for her without MI and FL. And the idea that the delegates will be seated "as-is" is unrealistic.

It sounds like Michigan is closer to submitting a plan while Florida has dug in its heels. The reason the Florida Dems kept the date on Feb. 29 is they didn't want to pay for caucuses at a later date that would have cost $8 million. But they could have and decided not to--that isn't the Florida state legislature's fault.

Posted by BG | March 6, 2008 4:09 PM

For all of you railing against Florida breaking the rules...sorry, but frankly you do not know what you are talking about...

The Republican legislature in Florida voted to reform voting procedures in Florida and include a paper trail and wrote into law the primary date for January 29, the Florida State Democrats tried to defeat that and to stop it but they were defeated...the primary date for the state of Florida was set by the State of Florida legislature for January 29...

...the DNC under Dean and Brazile offered $800,000 for a caucus for the whole state of Florida...

Florida is a very large and spread out state, they do not do caucuses here and $800,000 would not come close to covering a caucus for the whole state of Florida...

so the Florida Democrats and voters had no choice but to vote on the primary day at the legal locations where the voting machines were, etc and a record turnout of almost 2 million Democrats turned out to vote and there was also about a week of early voting beforehand...

Hillary, Barak and Edwards were all awarded delegates. Hillary won the popular vote.

none of the candidates campaigned here but the only one running daily ads was Barak Obama in all the media markets.

the problem is not with the Fla Democrats it is with the DNC who thought it was so omnipotent that unlike the GOP that took half the delegates away...the DNC took ALL THE DELEGATES AND VOTES AWAY...

the DNC thought it would not matter and they would all eventually be seated but now it does matter... and they are stuck with the fact that there are fifty states in the USA not 48...

so don't blame the Florida Democrats...who have gone thru enough with they votes being taken away...we live in Florida, not Cuba...

finally, as Senator Nelson says, if the Florida delegates and votes are not counted or if another primary is not held as a redo...the democratic party is in for the biggest trainwreck it has ever seen at the Democratic Convention in August...

this story will completely take over the news cycle with constant stories about how the Dems went to the Supreme Court during Gore-Bush in 2000 to save votes with hanging chads and now they are throwing away millions of Floridian votes...

there will be protestors from Florida and Michigan screaming "Count My Vote" and there will be chaos...

The Democrats will lose Florida...in fact, McCain is down here now fundraising and gathering support...and Rep Charlie Crist is being thought of as a VP possibility...

Crist is all over TV today standing up for the voters of Florida...and as he says "all the voters in Florida" He is very popular and moderate...look for Democrats to defect if this keeps up...

...this is a PR blunder of such magnitude that the DNC is going to look like Communists when this is over...

I suggest either the DNC seat the delegates and count the votes or come up with the money for a redo because the price they will pay will be much more costly than the $18 million needed for a redo...

...and that includes what the Democratic Congressional Committee is starting to worry about...

btw...this florida-michigan story is playing nonstop on cable and in the local news in Florida

the lawyer from the Gore-Bush fiasco, Coffey, is all over the news talking about the disenfranchisment of the voters after we tried to save the hanging chads in Florida and went to the Supreme Court, etc...

as Bill Nelson says...this story is the worst nightmare the DNC can ever imagine...coming at the Democratic Convention and the Republicans will exploit this to the hilt...

maybe some of the Obama supporters are too young to remember what happened in Florida in 2000...

but believe me...this is a MAJOR FIASCO in the making if the delegates and votes are not recognized and counted...

Posted by S | March 6, 2008 7:55 PM

To those opposing reholding primaries and refuse to seat the chosen delegates in Jan:

What are these supposed "rules" set by obscure leadership committees in the DNC anyway; how are they in anyway transparent to the public view. Why do they give disproportionate power to not only the traditional first states like Iowa and New Hampshire, but now this year has added to the litany of injustice on the primary system by adding small states (not that small states shouldn't have a say, but their population shouldn't have disproportionate power over the larger states in selecting nominees) like S. Carolina and Nevada.

Why would we have to accept another system of injustice that is imposed on the people by the political big-wigs like Dean and his DNC, and championed by someone who obviously has a stake in it like Obama. The people should have the last say in this; and there is no legitimate reason why DNC should make final decisions on the dates of the primarily, unless it is to allow all states to hold these on or after a single day; none of this party-boss funny business of favouring certain states while downplaying others.

If the antiquated caucus system of allowing only those who have an entire evening to spend to vote, while ignoring night-shift workers, parents who need to stay home with kids, and people who may be travelling for various reasons, and a list of other disenfranchised voters by the caucus system; and on top of that now increase the hierarchical tiered system of certain states getting much more voice in the decision process. This simply is wrong, and there is nothing democratic about this broken primary system.

While DNC and the Obama camp may put down and disregard states like MI and FL, they cannot where is the basis of their power, and their abilities to make these decisions about the party future lies; it is with the average registered democrat. I hope they don't come out here again, and pull a Katherine Harris Part II. I guarantee that if Obama wins this thing by disenfranchising MI and FL from a real say in the nomination process, the Demoractic party will have an extraordinarily difficult time carrying those states, and the general election in the fall.

Posted by Jamie | March 8, 2008 1:12 AM