Flo/Mi: The Lawsuits Begin

A supporter of John Edwards has persuaded a federal appeals court in Atlanta to hear his case for seating Florida's 210 delegates.

This may well be an exercise in jurisdiction assertion, but it's got to make the DNC a wee bit nervous: after all, the DNC was unsuccessfully sued for violating the civil rights of Floridians last year and was essentially granted the right to determine and interpret its own primary rules.

Comments

Why would they be nervous when "the DNC ... essentially granted the right to determine and interpret its own primary rules." ?

And when the similar suit in Nevada went nowhere - other than to clarify that the DNC has the power to conduct the primaries as they see fit.

Posted by Claus | March 17, 2008 9:32 AM

Bill Nelson already sued the DNC last December when they tried to move the date of the primary up. It took the Judge one hour to dismiss the lawsuit.

So they already lost - therefore this Atlanta lawsuit will be dismissed as the Fl State Dem Party proceeded DESPITE being told the votes would not count by a court of law.

Likely the Atlanta court was not aware of the already dismissed lawsuit brought on by Sen Nelson and the State Party

Here are some links:

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/APP/712050794&template=apart

"The rule is very clear. Only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina were allowed by the Democratic National Committee to hold presidential elections in January. It took one hour for Judge Robert Hinkle threw out Bill Nelson's lawsuit against the DNC. The DNC found the Florida Democratic Party in violation of their rules. The argument that the FDP voted unanimously to move the primary up to Jan. 29th. The vote vote to move up the primary received huge bipartisan support.

Florida House 118 to 0
Florida Senate 37 to 2

I have followed this story and I never heard the reason Florida Democrats supported moving the primary up was because of rule 3A. Nelson and Thurman voted to move the primary up so they can court favor with presidential candidates. Republicans and Democrats wanted to national media spotlight that New Hampshire and Iowa received. These people were warned repeatly by DNC and RNC officials not to move up the primary. The FDP has refused to compromise with the DNC. Nelson and Thurman are responsible for disenfranchising voters and they need to be held accountable. Progressive bloggers sound like the lefty version of Instupundit when they become apologists for these incompetent Democrats. Florida deserves better than Bill Nelson and Karen Thurman."

Posted by alison | March 17, 2008 1:29 PM

The "disenfranchisement" meme has bothered for sometime now, being that primaries and caucuses are party elections, not federal elections. Parties are free to pick their candidates in anyway they see fit (if they weren't, I'm sure we would have seen anti-caucus lawsuits by now)

I don't see how seating FL and MI as they are now can work, because then every state can disregard DNC rules and move up their primaries, making 2012 a real mess.

I also don't see how re do elections could be funded by anyone other than the state or DNC (which would be another horrible precedent for the DNC future). If the money came 50/50 from each campaign that might work, but the notion of privately funded re do elections is antithetical to the notion of democracy, even in party elections.

The fact is, FL and MI broke party rules, and their earlier elections were null and void. The very notion that they get to 'redo' them is sketchy, but if they feel strongly about it, they must make the sacrifice (meaning pay) to have those elections.

Rep. Gov. Crist obviously put a wrinkle in even the best laid plans forward, so FL is a complete mess.

However, for anyone to say they will vote for 4 more years of Bush/McCain's failed policies for America because they don't believe the rules should apply to them, only the other 48 states, screw them, they are voting out of spite, not principle, and I doubt they would play much of a constructive role in helping form a progressive governing coalition.

Posted by Ben | March 17, 2008 1:34 PM