Florida Democrats backing down on Jan. 29 primary

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Source: Miami Herald

Florida Democrats, unable to work out a compromise to avoid harsh sanctions imposed by the Democratic National Committee, appear ready to give in and declare the Jan. 29 presidential primary meaningless.

While state party officials insist no ''consensus'' has been reached on what the party should do, there is a growing recognition that within the next week Democrats will announce a plan that renders the primary vote nonbinding in order to comply with national party rules. Florida Democrats will instead decide some time after Jan. 29 which presidential candidate is the winner of the state's delegates to the national convention.

One suggested plan is to have Democrats vote by mail, although another proposal that may win out calls for Democrats to hold a state convention sometime after Feb. 5.

''The positive thing about this is reality may finally be setting in at the party that delegates will not be selected on the 29th of January and if we want to have delegates we need to have an alternate plan,'' said Allan Katz, a Tallahassee attorney and member of the Democratic National Committee.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/238351.html

[Kagemusha]

1. At long last, some sanity!

Let's get those Florida Democrats their delegates like they should have from the start, if not for going along with a dumb Republican scheme.

[napi21]

2. Thank GOD! With a January primary they are still a very

relivant State! I hope Mich. and the others who were dabbling with the idea of a very early one follow their lead.

[pscot]

3. Sounds like the "Smoke filled room"

will be making a comeback. Without tobacco, of course. Leave it to Florida to lead the party back to the '50s. The state really is an ornament to democracy. Not!

[robcon]

4. A state convention to choose the delegates

is anti-Democratic and anti-democratic.

What about moving the date????? Can't they just compromise on that?

[tritsofme]

5. Why not have a "non-binding" primary on the 29th

and then have a state convention allocate delegates based on the results of that primary at some later date?

[skids]

6. That would be exactly what they cannot do...

The issue here is that unless the primary on the 29th is completely meaningless, to the point of not even being newsworthy, they have broken their agreement, which was all about which states get to sound the first note in the expectations game.

[hang a left]

9. They had the opportunity to lodge complaints months ago with

the DNC. They did not. All this friggin infighting within the party is just divisive and unproductive. Leave it to the DLCers to want to cause trouble for the DNC.

[MODemocrat]

7. Sure do wish I could understand this concept; but well; I don't

If someone has the time or the patience with me, would you explain to me in simple language, just what's going on in Florida?
Makes me feel like a :dunce: :shrug:

[ConservativeDemocrat]

10. Easy, all states are in a race to be first...

Because they want their own pet issues to be kow-towed to by the presidential contenders.
Iowa, for instance, has extracted promises of massive government support for corn-based
ethanol from their nominees, even though the benefits are extremely dubious. So you can
imagine how other states feel.

This, however, has caused dozens of legislatures to try to put their state first.
They just keep pushing it back. The DNC finally said "enough" and put a hard limit
on it, for fear of eventually having to decide the 2020 Presidential election in 2010,
or some such nonsense.

The Florida legislature, being entirely Republican, just thumbed their noses and set
their official vote earlier anyway. The DNC said to the Florida state party, "violate
the rules and we'll take away all your delegates". After some whining about a lawsuit,
it appears the Florida State party is backing down.

How this actually works out in practice is going to be quite messy, however.
Effectively the premature vote that Florida voters will, by their state law, participate
in, won't actually count. So there's going to have to be a second, indirect, election
that abides by the rules.

That's it in a nutshell.

- C.D. Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

[MODemocrat]

12. C.D. Thanks to you, I finally get it

You spelled this out so well, even an egg-head like myself can understand it. DU is the greatest place
for information and I thank you for posting this.

:thumbsup: :hi:

[Lasher]

20. Good summary, to which I will add...

It wasn't just the Republicans in the Florida legislature who cooked up this early date for the primary there. Democrats went along with it, with enthusiasm.

[Zhade]

25. Do you support a national primary day?

NT!

[nashville_brook]

27. so, florida will likely throw an election into question again

[hang a left]

8. Just yesterday I read how Ben Nelson was ready to fight all the way to the SC

:rofl:

[QC]

11. Ben Nelson's from Nebraska.

Why does he care what's going on in Florida?

[Colonel Bat Guano]

13. This is how we lose it

The primary vote will be a lower turnout than it should have been....meaning the results of a huge state will be utterly meaningless. No one can even argue on the "beauty contest" merits, because the second and third tier candidates will (reasonably) be able to argue the vote would be different if everyone knew it actually mattered.

I gather that the "pledge" still holds for Dem candidates to avoid campaigning here....which means that they will be behind the Republicans who aren't operating under similar restraints.

There are already Dems here who are saying they won't vote in the primary and who won't vote for Dems in the general election because they're disgusted by this. As details become clearer (not a problem, the RW media will love to spread the idea that Dems are ironically disenfranchising their own voters in Florida), this will only get worse.

This is a swing state that's tight enough on a good day, without any vote rigging or vote caging. Good news for the Rs, they don't need to do any of that shit this time. The Dems have done it for them.

Yay team.

Seriously, the rest of you guys had better make damn sure the other 49 states are okay....because Florida will go red based on this shit. It's sad but it's true. There's really no point for Dems to campaign here in the wake of this nonsense. As a Floridian, I say, PLEASE identify the other swing states that get you past 270 and spend money and time there. This one's gone.

[QC]

15. I'm tempted to go Green this fall myself, thanks to all this shit.

Denying good Democrats their votes in order to protect the lily-white microstates' monopoly on picking nominees is not something I want to be a part of.

[bettyellen]

21. "white microststes" it's actually because they refused to follow the rules.....isn;t it?

i believe they missed the deadline to request an earlier primary and came in late and isnsiting that they somehow could break the rules?
makes sense they get slapped.
and all this happened because they were opening it up beyond Iowa and NH..... or did you forget that because your state screwed up and then tried to cut the line? they got slapped down becauase they deserved to.

[sendero]

24. I agree that..

... the primary system has to change. But states doing it on their own without the party coordination would be a disaster.

I'm glad Dr. Dean put the screws on them. If we had leaders like that in congress, we could actually get something done.

[hang a left]

17. Sorry, I meant Bill Nelson.

Forgive me if you will.

I meant the same frigin thing

[nashville_brook]

14. so, my primary vote means nothing -- "non-binding" -- as in "why bother"

[QC]

16. But only white farmers in tiny states can choose nominees!

The rest of us have to follow their lead.

It's God's own plan, or something.

[FloridaJudy]

18. I'm seriously considering registering Republican

I'll be the first one in my family ever to do it, but if the Florida politicians disenfranchise me, I'll switch - just for the primary. I'll support the Democratic nominee come November (and return to the fold just after the primary), but I'll vote for the least obnoxious Republican I can find.

I never thought I'd be reduced to doing that. This state bites.

[w4rma]

19. Ron Paul might be winning the Florida Republican delegates, then. (nt)

[ieoeja]

28. So your vote will only count 50%? That is the RNC rule for Fla moving up the primary.

For some reason this doesn't seem to bother Republicans in Florida. Only the Democrats seem upset by it.

[riona]

22. Our state legislature will get the hang of elections someday

In the meantime, I'd like to vote in another swing state.
:popcorn:

[IndianaGreen]

23. And you want that Ethanol State of Iowa to pick another LOSER for us?

The only solution is a system of rotating regional primaries!

[Zhade]

26. Is there any logical reason we don't have a SINGLE primary day for the entire nation?

NT!