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Florida 2.0: The First Draft

13 Mar 2008 12:20 pm

Read it here.

Lots of obstacles remain... preclearance, the Florida House Dems, David Plouffe's strategy... but, as a senior party official put to me earlier this week, "What do we have to lose?"

Formally, the state party executive committee will vote on this in April 15. But the party will begin the process much earlier than that.

Here's chair Karen Thurman's intro:

Democratic Leaders – I urge you to fully consider the following information thoughtfully and thoroughly, remembering that we are all in this primary situation together. There is no question that we must move quickly to deal with the dispute over Florida’s Democratic Presidential Primary. Fingers have been pointed in every direction, but how we arrived at this breaking point is irrelevant. The stark reality is that all Democrats lose if this is not resolved immediately. Florida Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller commissioned a poll of voters who participated in the state’s January 29th Democratic Presidential Primary. The results are striking – 59% of those Democrats want a revote. Moreover, only 63% of these primary‐voting Democrats are committed to sticking with our eventual nominee if Florida voters are not counted. That number is dangerously low. We must refocus our discussion of this issue on the people of Florida. Restoring their faith in the Democratic Party is of paramount importance. No action is truly a solution if it leaves Florida voters feeling that they were excluded from the most exciting nominating contest in history. Because of the unprecedented nature of the national race, a situation that previously was a relatively minor, party‐insider issue now has the potential to result in irreparable damage for years to come. The people of Florida are not responsible for this dilemma and should not be unfairly punished by losing their right to vote. It is true that a record‐breaking 1.75 million Democrats voted on January 29th in an open and fair election. The Florida Democratic Party has been adamant and consistent for many months that the results of this election should be counted and the allocated delegates seated because it was the only opportunity for all Florida Democrats to participate. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is no possibility the presidential campaigns and the DNC will agree to seat the delegation as is. Some have suggested that to resolve this issue Florida’s delegation be split evenly between the candidates, and potentially restore the superdelegates’ votes. However, the DNC has informed the Party that this is not an option under the Rules. Additionally, it does not allow the voters to participate in the process. Attached is a draft outline of a proposal I would like you to review as soon as possible. It is the only best option that has been presented to me that offers Florida voters a voice in the nominating process. After you have seriously considered it, please respond directly to me or Executive Director Leonard Joseph via email or phone by the close of business Friday with your comments, concerns and suggestions. I will review all input over the weekend and be in touch again on Monday. If the consensus is that we should take the next step, the Party is fully prepared to do so and will make available a full delegate selection plan for a 30‐day public comment period. If not, the Party cannot and will not move forward without your support. Thank you.

Comments (8)

A June 3rd primary? Wouldn't that essentially give Florida the final word on the nominating process? Something about that doesn't quite sit right with me.

Note the addendum in the PDF memo: the DNC apparently *can* allow the state delegaes to be split 50-50 (in contrast to what Ambinder posted above). This strikes me as the least bad option at this point.

Dan,
I agree, but Hillary will never agree to this. One of the main tenants of her argument is that with the remaining states and the revotes, she can pass him. Without FL/MI revoting or counting as is, then she cannot catch him in any key metric. She would be conceding.

This is just stupid, giving FL the last word after they violated the rules. Basically rewarding them!

Go ahead and seat these pledged delegates 50/50, but strip the superdelegates. They caused this mess and should be held accountable!!!

Mike in Sac,

I think you are on to something. Assuming the super delegates from FL are slanted to Clinton, perhaps the Obama camp would go along with a revote to allocate pledged delegates if FL super delegates are not seated. This would give everyone something
- Voters in FL get to feel like they had their say in the process.
- Clinton gets the likely PR boost of another big state primary win.
- Obama gets to not look like he is standing in the way of the people's will and much of the delegate gain Clinton gets from the revote disappears with the super delegates not being seated.
- The DNC gets to still punish FL, but only punishes the party leaders and officials that created this disaster.

Would the plan really need preclearance since it's not an official state election?

What do we have to lose? How about $20M for a do-over contest that will do absolutely nothing about changing Obama's lead.

And I love what Letterman had to say about it earlier this week: If we are going to have a "do-over" election, can't we do-over the 2004 election?

We want actual voters to be heard right ! ?

Soooooooooo People:

Re - Vote Michigan and Florida

just as long as we

Get RID of the SUPERDELEGATE vote too !

This might be too much about DEMOCRACY though !