Current Article

Are Florida Democrats Ready for Another Controversy?

By webreporter on Feb 9, 2008 in POLITICS

The stage was set after the 2008 presidential primary which took place on January 29^th despite Democratic Party rules that forbade the state from holding a primary before February 5^th. In response, the party stripped Florida of its delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Now, as a result the “almost even” race, Florida Democrats are in a political “holding pattern,” not knowing whether their votes could, once again, tip the balance of another Presidential election. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama slug it out in an unexpectedly tight national battle for their party's presidential nomination as party leaders voiced confidence that Florida's 210 delegates would be seated at this summer's nominating convention in Denver.

They just don't know when that will happen.

READ MORE ON THE CONTROVERSY BREWING IN FLORIDA

"The devil is in the details and the timing," said Mitch Ceasar, Broward's Democratic Party chairman. "We might be seated a month before convention; we might not be seated until the second day, when there is already a nominee."

The decision could well fall to the Democratic Party's convention credential committee…… and Florida won't have a voice on it!

"We're in politically untested waters," Ceasar said. "And the last act has yet to play out."

State party officials are moving ahead with delegate selection that will be based on the outcome of the Jan. 29 Florida primary. Meetings will be held in the state's 25 congressional districts, and delegates will be apportioned to the candidates based on the vote in each district.

State party officials are hoping a clear nominee will emerge during the remaining primaries and he or she will call for the Florida delegates to be admitted to the convention and that will end the controversy.

"We're urging patience," said Alejandro Miyar, press secretary for the Florida Democratic Party. "This process goes until June. We hope the nominee will come forward and will appeal to seat the delegation."

But what if there is no clear nominee?

"It's premature to speculate about anything else," he said.

Florida ran into trouble with the Democratic National Committee when the Legislature voted to move the state's primary to Jan. 29, a week before Super Tuesday. Even if Democrats had wanted to stop it, they couldn't have, because Republicans control both the House and Senate.

The fallout: The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida of its delegates to the national convention therefore setting the stage for the potential dilemma.

"We have run into a Washington wall," said Jon Ausman, a member of the DNC from Tallahassee. "They were only supposed to penalize half the delegates. The national party went overboard.... They went nuts."

Despite rumored pressure from the committee for Florida to consider holding caucuses this spring to ask the state's Democrats to again pick their favorite contender, the idea is being almost universally rejected.

Holding caucuses around the state would cost $3 million to $4 million, and the national party has agreed to contribute only $850,000. And on Jan. 29, Florida Democrats came out in record numbers, more than 1.7 million, to cast votes for their favorite contenders, while a caucus might attract only 80,000 or so people.

"That's basically a do-over. And the only sport that has a do-over is volleyball," Ausman said.

It takes 2,025 delegates to win the nomination. An Associated Press estimate on Thursday had Clinton with 1,045 and Obama with 960. Clinton has promised to seat Florida's delegation; Obama has not.

Meanwhile, no hotel rooms have yet been set aside in Denver for Florida’s Democratic delegates.

"Hopefully, we'll have rooms," Miyar said.

Linda Kleindienst can be reached at lkleindienst@sun-sentinel.com