Key DNC official says it's up to Florida and Michigan
By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff
Unless Florida and Michigan Democrats devise workable plans to redo their outlaw primaries, there is no chance the national party will cave in to pressure and approve their delegates if it could tip the outcome of the Democratic presidential race, a potential key arbiter of the dispute said today.
James Roosevelt Jr. of Massachusetts, co-chairman of the national party's rules and bylaws committee, said in an interview with the Boston Globe that he doubts there will be a resolution of the standoff without the states devising do-over contests to be held before June 10.
Florida's Democratic Party this week abandoned a proposal to hold a mail-in primary and there were signs today that the Michigan legislature's plan for a June 3 primary was falling apart after legal questions were raised by the campaign of Barack Obama. At a hastily arranged campaign stop in Detroit, rival Hillary Clinton challenged Obama to support new contests in Michigan and Florida, saying it would be "wrong and frankly un-American" to disenfranchise nearly 2.5 million voters.
Her campaign accused Obama of blocking a re-vote, citing a memo issued earlier yesterday by Roosevelt and his rules committee co-chairperson, Alexis Herman, saying they believed the Michigan plan could pass muster with the party.
Obama accused Clinton of being "completely disingenuous" on Florida and Michigan, telling CNN that she didn't show concern for the voters in the two states until "it looked like she would have no prospects of winning the nomination without having them count."
Roosevelt, asked if the party might yield to a compromise to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations that did not include another contest approved by the Democratic National Committee, said: "As long as it could affect the outcome, [there's] no chance of that."
At stake are 128 pledged delegates in Michigan and 185 in Florida, which were voided by the DNC because their two states flouted party rules and moved up their primaries to January. Another 28 superdelegates -- elected officials and party leaders -- in Michigan and 25 in Florida are also in limbo.
Clinton, who trails Obama by 118 delegates in the latest Associated Press tally, beat Obama handily in Florida and "uncommitted" by a wide margin in Michigan, where Obama's name did not appear on the ballot. Both candidates kept a pledge not to campaign in either state. Had the January results counted, Clinton would have picked up a net gain of 38 delegates in Florida and at least 18 in Michigan.
In the interview, Roosevelt also said national party officials are resolved to maintain an orderly nominating process. That could be jeopardized if the party backs down against the two scofflaw states.
"If there is simply a caving on this, we'll end up with primaries on Halloween and so that does at least counter some of the purely political campaign influences here," said Roosevelt, who is also CEO of the Tufts Health Plan of Massachusetts.
The only matters now officially before the rules committee are two challenges by a Florida DNC member. One seeks instatement of the state's 25 superdelegates who were excluded from the convention as part of the DNC decision to punish Florida. The other seeks to restore half of the pledged delegates. The penalty called for stripping the state of at least half its delegates, but the party decided to exclude 100 percent. The committee is expected to take up the matter next month.
Every aspect of the process now will be viewed through the prism of the politics of this historic and divisive campaign for the party's nomination. Several members of the rules committee have contributed to either Clinton or Obama and member Harold Ickes is a high-profile adviser to the Clinton campaign.
But Roosevelt said he and 29 other members of the rules and bylaws committee, despite relationships and loyalties based on years in party politics, take very seriously the role of impartial referee. The members, he said, "tend to be, first of all, committed to the institution of the Democratic Party and secondly, they also tend to be rules geeks."
He cited Ickes, a friend, as a good example, voting as a committee member to penalize the two states but, as a Clinton partisan, advocating that the delegations be seated. "Harold's been pretty straightforward about that," Roosevelt said. "He'll say, 'I'm talking with a different hat on now.' "
Roosevelt, who has earned a reputation for probity during several decades as a party activist, has never endorsed a candidate in a contested Democratic primary. He has been a member of the rules and bylaws committee for more than 20 years and a co-chairman since 1995. Roosevelt and Herman, both of whom held posts in the administration of Bill Clinton, have stayed neutral in the Clinton-Obama contest.
Roosevelt said he has "good feelings" for both Senator Clinton, a friend for 20 years, and for Senator Obama, whom he introduced at his first speech at the National Press Club on the subject of Social Security, a key piece of the New Deal legacy of his grandfather, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Roosevelt, who is a superdelegate, said he will ultimately vote for a candidate at the convention but has given no hint whom he favors. Until then, he said, "I am neutral in my heart because I am committed to the fairness of the process."
FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN HAVE A RIGHT TO HAVE THEIR VOTES COUNTED.
IF OBAOMA WILL NOT AGREE TO THE REVOTE THEN CLINTON SHOULD RECEIVE THE VOTES AND DELEGATES FROM BOTH STATES. THE VOTERS IN FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN DID NOT MAKE THE DECISION TO HAVE AN EARLY ELECTION. IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT. THEY MATTER.
This whole mess could have been avoided if the DNC hadn't been so pig-headed in the first place.
I am a democratic voter in California. I hold the Democratic party responsible for this conflict. If you do not allow the Florida and Michigan voters to express their will you are responsible for disinfranchising the voters of those states. This is putting party policy above voters rights. If this is not resolved I will vote for the Republican candidate. Party politics are not superior to voters rights.
Wake up you stupid fools .The republicians are laughing there ass off.
Solve this dam mess.
They broke the rules, knowing the potential consequences. If there is no penalty, there is no national democratic organization worth taking seriously. Special dispensation under pressure is simply unfair. Please do the right thing. I'm an independent who is waiting to see if the Democrat Committee has the courage to do tstand up for the American people.
did they change the constitution to allow an ex president to run for a third term.it seems to me thats what bill clinton is trying to do .if hillary becomes the president when that phone rings in the early morning, who will answer it? i once admired hillary, no more. she reminds me of lady macbeth , only , this time she is bent on becoming president. yes i have seen a side of her that is so mean spireted,calculating its scarey. i believe the two, bill and hillary will do any and everything to get back in that white house. what a pair. and yes slick willie and hillary are pushing the race card and they are being caught with their hands in the cookie jar.america deserves better.
The DNC IS WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! and WE WILL NOT FORGET! OUT WITH THE OLD AND IN WITH THE AMERICAN! I AM SO AT A POINT TO SAY FORGET YOU DEMOCRATIC PARTY YOU HAVE BETRAYED MY TRUST IN BEING THE PARTY OF DEMOCRACY! TIME TO FIND A NEW ONE OR CREATE NEW ONE!
The DNC is a joke. I'm a Democrat but I never suspected that as an organization it was so dysfunctional. Dean is the head but says he can't do anything however when it came time to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates the DNC was all powerful. They've screwed up by having an under populated state like Iowa set the tone in the primaries and the lemmings that follow results there, then there are the open primaries where Independents can vote for a party candidate even though they are not a member of that party and of course the Caucuses which are do undemocratic it's a joke. Oh and I almost forgot Texas where you get to vote twice for the same person, maybe. Totally disgusting. Not another dime from this voter.
If my fellow Americans from the Great States of Florida and Michigan are disenfranchised by the Democratic National Committee ... you leave many Americans with no other choice but to choose John McCain.
The DNC is not only stupid, they're also promoting a political system that is unrepresentative of the American Electorate.
DNC = Dumb Numb Community
DAY LIGHT ROBBERY OF YOUR POOR FOLLOWERS IS A SHAME. THAT IS WHAT HILLARY IS DOING. SHE FULLY KNOWS SHE IS HEADING NO WHERE.
THE MAGIC NUMBER 63 IS FAR OUT OF REACH. SHE IS SO FAR SHORT OF THAT NUMBER IN PA. EVEN IF MI IS ALLOWED TO RE-VOTE SHE CAN NOT MAKE IT>
A FOOL IS BORN EVERYDAY, SOMEBODY NEED TO TIP PEOPLE ABOUT THE HILLARY GATE!
Voting in the primary is a privilege, not a right. Your only right is to vote in the general election.
The Democratic state parties in Florida and Michigan cheated. And Hillary Clinton cheated by campaigning in Florida and Michigan. This shouldn't affect the outcome of the nomination. Barack Obama wasn't even on the ballot in Michigan.
These states should organize quick caucuses so that they can send legitimate delegates to the convention. Otherwise they should be excluded.
All you whiners who've previously posted comments need a reality gut check:
1. Both the states knew the rules a year and a half in advance and voted in support of them. Deciding they didn't need to abide by them after the fact was just plain stupid.
2. The Republican Governor and his Republican Congress in Florida voted to approve moving the date of the primary up with full knowledge of the consequences. The Democratic party of Florida is to blame for allowing the date of it's primary to be moved up, NOT THE DNC.
3. Of the two candidates, only Obama fully followed the DNC rules by not campaigning in either state and had his name removed from the ballot in Michigan. Hillary still campaigned in Florida to some extent and I only call her out because she and her supporters (some of whom whine above) are the only ones complaining about the "disenfranchisement" of voters of their respective states (well, the Republican governor is too).
It's not the voters fault, true, but they elected their party leaders. You guys made your beds, now lie in it. Democracy is not a spectator sport. If voters want a revote, step up or shut up.
It's funny how ignorance breeds ignorance. Hillary complains so her lackeys complain because they're too stupid and lazy to do their own homework.
It's not just MI & FL that Obama wants to disenfranchise and YES I blame it on Obama because he put the nail in the coffin for MI. He refused to return calls or come up with a fair solution because he wanted to run the clock out. He is as unAmerican as his biast hate-spewing minister. He only wants to be president of the states that he can win.
Furthermore, I live in a state that hasn't held it's primary yet and the Obama camp keeps telling everyone that the primary is over with millions of voters left including in my state. That's voter suppression -- people think why should I vote if Obama has lock on the nomination. And it's disenfranchising these millions of voters by saying we don't count because he is in the lead.
I am so disgusted with Obama's campaign that even IF he gets the nomination, this democrat is voting for John McCain. And Obama supporters, don't kid yourself there are going to be McCain democrats in every state, on top of the democrats in FL & MI who will turn against him in the general election.
Now couple that with all of Obama's secrets starting to be exposed about his Reverend and his choice of friends, ie...Tony Rezko and Bill Ayers (an American terrorist from the 60s/70s). Not to mention his freudian slip of the tongue "the typcial white person." He can not win the general election.
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