Jeremy Ring (D-FL) said "relevance is more important than "partying" in Denver.

[madfloridian]

What Jeremy Ring (D-FL) says and does matters nationwide.

He also said proudly "We have blown up the whole primary system."

This is a truly amazing statement from Florida Senator Jeremy Ring, the Democrat who introduced the early primary bill and sponsored it. He seems to think there is going to be a big party in Denver, but he seems clueless as to its importance.

Emit here at DU posted a great thread about Jeremy Ring, his lack of regrets, and his attitude.

She is getting attacked by stuff that is just tossed out there, hoping it will stick. There is an influx here to defend Hillary's decision to even go to court to get the delegates of Florida. It is getting pretty deep with the stuff that did not stick. Put on your wading boots.

What Jeremy did really matters. It has a significance beyond the primary. It shows the contempt many of Florida's Democratic leaders have for the voters.

And Jeremy Ring, a Democratic state senator from Broward County and co-sponsor of the legislation, defended it.

"If the choice is Florida is relevant and has no delegates versus being irrelevant and having delegates, I'd choose being relevant with no delegates," Ring said. "We did this so 18 million Floridians could take part in the presidential primaries, not so a few hundred people can go to a party in Denver."

Chaos Subversion...Florida

Maybe someone should have clued him in about what kind of party it was. But he had more to say about the bill.

The Florida Senate is waiting to see what happens in other states before moving forward with a date, said Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, who is leading the effort in that chamber.

"It gives us a chance to really watch the landscape," Ring said. "When we're done Florida will be relevant."

"When we're done Florida will be relevant."

It was all about relevance, about being near the front of the line. They had been told repeatedly by the DNC that they would be sanctioned. It meant more to be relevant.

Ring said that even with the boycott, Florida Democrats are no worse off than in past primaries.

"Back then, the nominees were already decided by the time our primary came around, so the candidates would come here to raise money but not to campaign for our votes," he said.

"So what are they doing now? The same thing. We're no worse - if anything, we're better.

"My hope is we've blown up the whole primary system," Ring said. "It would be the biggest legacy we'll get from this legislation."

Jeremy Ring: If anything we are better off

Did you notice that Jeremy did not say a word about the voters and their choice of a candidate. To him it was all about being relevant, being first..blowing up the primary system.

The Florida Democrats worked with the GOP the whole way. They were never victims, they were instigators. They did it to be important, to be relevant.

There were several really bad components to the bill which seem to have been ignored by both parties, if by chance they bothered to read all of it. One part really concerns me.

*Section 25 imposes new restrictions against citizen initiative petition drives and includes an onerous and expensive new process for gathering petition revocations. Under this new process, citizens who had signed a petition would be singled out and lobbied to subsequently “Revoke” the original petition signature. This new revocation process will create a cottage industry of companies who specialize in collecting petition revocations and could result in citizens being harassed to sign revocation forms in their own homes. It will also create a burdensome new workload for our county Supervisors of Elections.

Bill Tracker

The bill also affected 52 Florida statutes. Don't ask me which ones. The link does not say.

Karen Thurman did not have Jeremy Ring stand with her when she touted the January 29 primary date. Jeremy Ring has been defiant about his role in this. Here are his own words.

“If you turn on the left wing liberal radio down in Broward, I am public enemy number one,” said Ring, who actually campaigned in 2006 on the need for an early primary and makes no apologies for his leading the effort. “I hear that a lot, that I was duped by the Republicans. No one duped me.”

A Democrat introduced the bill.

More about Karen's photo op press conference which ignored facts and such realistic stuff as what really happened.

When Karen Thurman surrounded herself with Broward County Democrats last Sunday to tout the Jan. 29 primary: state Sen. Jeremy Ring. No one invited the Broward state Senator who sponsored the original bill moving Florida’s primary from March to January and undercut the Democrats’ argument that the early primary was all the Republicans’ fault.

...It would be inconvenient to acknowledge Ring’s role in a process where the Florida Democratic Party has morphed into the Defiant Victim — victimized by the Republican-dominated legislature, victimized by its own national party and victimized by the prez candidates, yet standing up on its hind legs and saying “Go to hell” to its victimizers. The reminder that Ring ran on the notion of moving up the primary date, was elected on it and followed through on his campaign promise is an inconvenient truth that the FlaDems simply must ignore.

The Florida Democrats voted for the bill 115 to 1, then they immediately sent the word out that the DNC and Howard Dean had "disenfranchised" them.

The DNC ruling should stand, the delegates must not count toward choosing a nominee. If Hillary Clinton wins with those delegates, she will not be considered the legitimate nominee by many people.

[JVS]

1. Let's hope Obama's college kids are able to make a road-trip to Denver to greet this douchebag

Great way to start a semster.

[LordJFT]

2. This guy's sense of self-importance is already too strong as it is

[billyoc]

3. I don't agree with him, but I do see his point.

His rationale is that the early reporting of the Florida voting will sway voters in many other states, which might turn out to have more of an effect on the final outcome than the votes of the Florida delegation might have had. This may actually turn out to be the case, but I would not have suggested this course of action.

[madfloridian]

6. Relevance more important that voters' choices? You agree with that?

He sounds pretty arrogant to me.

[billyoc]

8. No, I read it to mean the the voters' choices would have more of an effect

on the outcome if the election is held earlier, by swaying voters in many other states.

[madfloridian]

11. They were willing to break the rules to make that happen.

And they should not get their delegates counted.

[billyoc]

12. Yeah. I don't get the feeling the DNC will budge on the delegates.

What do you think the chances are of another vote, a caucus?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

21. MadFloridian - wish you would submit this to OpEdNews

and change the title to: "My hope is we've blown up the whole primary system"

If you need any help let me know.

[madfloridian]

22. I have never posted there.

Not sure about the reception or how.

[Moochy]

4. Thank you for posting the facts madfloridian

I've followed your posts on this subject closely, and I for one really appreciate your efforts! :kick:

[madfloridian]

13. I appreiciate that, but I have not been able to even dent the propaganda

that the Florida leaders and the media spout out. It has been just my effort, and I can say I tried.

[bunnies]

5. FL would have been relevant if he'd left the primary date alone.

Werent you originally supposed to vote the first week in March? What a total idiot this guy is. I can't believe he's actually proud of the disgusting mess he's made. Bastard.

[madfloridian]

7. They could put the primary on Feb. 5 and delegates would have counted.

They wanted the week before Super Tuesday.

[sandnsea]

9. Rotten bastard

Maybe he ought to focus on ending the disenfranchisement IN Florida before he brings that particular brand of "democracy" to the rest of the country.

[Alhena]

10. Why do I get a mental image of an angry mob chasing this guy in Denver?

[madfloridian]

15. An image that would be pleasant to me.

:hi:

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. kick

[jaysunb]

16. Could Ring be, " a ringer ? "

:evilfrown:

[jaysunb]

17. Considering where things stand right now,

Florida would be in the thick of the nomination process had they abided by the rules.

Just think, had they waited until super Tuesday or whenever their turn was, they would probably be THE big player here....

[madfloridian]

20. You are right. It was power play that backfired.

.

[madfloridian]

18. Florida House Dem Gelber wrote Dean a letter, admitted they did not fight the GOP

on the issue of the primary. There is that whole atmosphere here that the party as a whole means nothing, that only big states count. Oh, gee, isn't that the prevailing wisdom that caused us to lose for years? Isn't that why Dean ran for chair, to make other states important as well?

Now that he has made other votes count, Florida's collective noses are out of joint.

Here is what Dan Gelber told Dean in a letter that of course was leaked to the press.

We may have disagreements, but please, let’s retire the circular firing squad.

Much of the back and forth and criticism of Florida by the DNC has been focused on the conduct of the Democratic legislators who – some argue – did not fight against the early primary bill. Yes, there is gambling in Casablanca. Of course we didn't fight against the bill. When the Republican leadership made it clear that this was their priority, Democrats had two choices: support something their constituents support and that was going to become law anyway; or support the DNC Rules Committee enforcement of a primary system that our constituents revile. For me, this decision was easy.

He is admitting they did not fight back. If they had voted no for the bill instead of 115 to 1 yes....they would have had delegates.

[sawgrassstan]

28. too bad about Dan..

Gelber's actually one of the best we have in Tallahassee. Depressing that he and the others let themselves get bamboozled. Or, rather, engineered their own bamboozling.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. The Florida Democrats voted for the bill 115 to 1

so they could f' up the 2008 election AGAIN.

[madfloridian]

23. Exactly.

.

[Sancho]

24. What really PO's me about Ring (and Nelson) is that they spend all this time on

"relevance" while the entire state voting system is rigged. Why allow the GOP to win election after election because no one is there to prevent things like Jennings in Sarasota, Castor losing to Martinez, and THREE presidential elections! Where is the "army of lawyers"?

Ring is either an idiot or doesn't care about the voters. No matter, I'm ready to replace a lot of the Florida leadership, and Jennings is high on my list. Nelson had no real competition (Harris) so we're stuck with him. We have some possible rising stars that could change Florida IF we can keep the elections from manipulations, and most of them happen to be women.

Alex Sink, Christine Jennings, Phyllis Busansky, Kathy Castor, Roger Wexler, and maybe even Clint Curtis.

[madfloridian]

25. You are right.

The GOP is in total charge of the votes, but the Dems you mention could make a difference by being more outspoken.

[sawgrassstan]

26. A stupid, ham-handed attempt to solve a very real problem

When this whole mess (Jan.29th, I mean) was first floated, I really thought it was just a "first shot across the bow" on the primary issue. I still can't believe Thurman and the state party leaders went ahead with such a dumb plan, 'specially when the national party told them they'd be sanctioned. Great move, guys n' gals-- it's thinking like this that's put the Florida Democrats where they are today (cough.)

Let's remember, though, that there is a very real problem with having such a late primary, at least as far as making your vote count. In 2004, by the time our primary rolled around, Kerry already had it in the bag. I voted in the primary, but pretty glumly-- the decision had been made without me, or any other Florida Democrat. I liked Kerry, and probably would have voted the same way if it had counted.

I thought the move to Jan. 29 was incredibly stupid and still think so. But moving it up to Super Tuesday, or some other acceptable date doesn't seem like a bad compromise. By stubborn insistence on Jan. 29, the Fla. leadership got sucker-punched by the Republican legislators.

The problem really IS the current primary system. I don't have a good solution (yet!), but there REALLY IS A PROBLEM HERE! By the time the late primaries roll around, most of the decisions about who's in and who's out have already been made. And a minority of Democrats have made the decision for all of us.

Can't we come up with something better?

[mohc]

27. And this attitude is why there was a last ditch effort to allow campaigning here

In the final days before the Florida primary, the state petitioned to allow the candidates to campaign here in Florida even if the delegates would not be seated, calling it a chance to "barnstorm" the state. Florida knew any semblance of legitimacy would be gone from the primary if there was no campaign here. They saw how Michigan was basically ignored and realized their genius idea to be "relevant" had backfired. Not only that, but it would make it easier to argue later to seat the delegates, as the "there was no campaign" argument would no longer be valid. Throughout the entire process, the state party showed no signs of wanting to work with the national party, it was either their way or nothing. And so the decision was an easy one, there would be no barnstorming, and therefore no campaign. And the media rightfully downplayed the Florida results, their irrelevance was secured. Now its all over but the fighting over the seating of the delegates. I just can not see the FDP backing down now, they will refuse any attempt at a new vote, whether it be a primary or caucus. My hope is that after the nominee is chosen, without the inclusion of any Florida or Michigan delegates, that nominee will choose to seat the pledged delegates (but not the superdelegates) in a show of reconciliation. But with the nomination secured before they are seated, they still will not be relevant.