Legal Commentary

What's Next for Florida in Primary Fight?

By Jeralyn

The issue of what will happen with Florida's Democratic primary voters has not been settled by the decision not to hold a new election.

Attempts are still underway to have Florida delegates seated in accord with the Jan. 29 primary results.

Clinton’s spokesman Singer responds: “Today’s announcement brings us no closer to counting the votes of the nearly 1.7 million people who voted in January. We hope the Obama campaign shares our belief that Florida’s voters must be counted and cannot be disenfranchised.”

On the Fox News Channel, Gov. Crist once again calls for the party to “do the right thing” and seat the delegation as-is in Denver — voted in by a record-breaking turnout.

That's the right solution. Also, on CNN an hour or so ago, before the spin doctors came on, a reporter who had spoken with Florida Democratic Party Chair and Congresswoman Karen Thurman said she told him that all options had not been exhausted -- or even explored yet-- and that efforts were ongoing to find a solution acceptable to both campaigns.

From Ms. Thurman's letter today: [More...]

This doesn’t mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April.

When this committee stripped us of 100% of our delegates last year, some members summed up their reasoning by saying, “The rules are the rules.” Unfortunately, the rules did not apply to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they, too, violated the DNC calendar by moving from their assigned dates.

As the late great Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “We must adjust our ideas to the facts of today… Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.”

So the battle over Florida's delegates and voters continues. Hillary Clinton does not appear to be scaling back her campaign. In fact, both she and Obama have just hired "superstar" campaigners for North Carolina, whose primary is May 6.

Though Pennsylvania has the buzz as the next big Democratic primary battleground, there's another major clash looming between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in North Carolina, where both campaigns have hired competing - and formidable - California political operatives to go mano a mano in a contest for 115 crucial delegates.

Obama has the edge in North Carolina with about 1/3 of Democratic primary voters being African American.

[Obama campaigner] Schirmer says Obama has an aggressive plan in North Carolina - where as many as a third of Democratic primary voters are expected to be African American - that will involve "vigorously campaigning across the state for all voters, white, black, Hispanic, Asian and everyting in between."

But, Hillary's campaigner says they will fight for every delegate.

Averell "Ace" Smith, the tough-as-nails former opposition researcher who managed the New York Senator's winning campaigns in California and Texas, has been ordered to bring in a win for Clinton in the May 6 primary, with Tarheel State polls showing Obama ahead by 8-10 points.

"There's no question that North Carolina is an uphill battle for us, but we intend to win here," said Smith in a phone interview Monday from North Carolina. "We're looking to score an upset."

Elton John will be doing a Radio City Music Hall benefit for Hillary on April 9.

Last but not least, even Huffpo sounds nervous about rumors that John Edwards may endorse Hillary before North Carolina.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).