WASHINGTON - With the two Democratic presidential candidates battling for every delegate, party leaders and the rival campaigns started searching in earnest yesterday for a way to seat delegations from Florida and Michigan. But they remained deeply divided over how to do so.
After weeks in which the issue hovered in the background, it shot to the forefront of the Democratic race as it became apparent that the delegates at stake could be vital in influencing whether Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the nomination.
Clinton won the most votes in primaries held in Florida and Michigan in January. But the states held their contests earlier than allowed by Democratic National Committee's rules, leading the party to strip them of their delegates to the nominating convention. Neither candidate campaigned actively in the two states, and Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan.
Obama has maintained a slim but steady lead over Clinton in delegates awarded by voting in the primaries and caucuses of other states. The Clinton campaign hopes she can translate her advantage in the popular vote in Florida and Michigan into a big share of their combined 367 delegates.
The fate of those disputed delegates has emerged as a battleground between them that could be as important as their next big primary battle, in Pennsylvania in April. But though the states, the party, and the candidates have all suggested that they must find a solution and that they are open to another round of voting, much remains to be settled, including what kind of contests to hold, when to hold them, how to allocate the delegates, and who picks up the tab in each state.
"I'll leave it up to the Democratic National Committee to make a decision about how to resolve it," Obama told ABC News last night. "But I certainly want to make sure that we've got Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention in some fashion."
The campaigns are not negotiating with each other, but are talking through surrogates and party leaders about a variety of options.
