Washington – The Democratic National Committee voted Saturday to strip Florida of all its presidential convention delegates, threatening to leave the state without a vote for the party’s 2008 nominee unless it delays the date of its presidential primary election.
The ultimatum marks the most drastic attempt yet by party leaders to impose order among squabbling states that have sought to elbow their balloting closer to the front of the traditional election cycle.
The DNC rules and bylaws committee voted overwhelmingly to give Florida’s state party 30 days to push back its primary contest by at least a week from Jan. 29 or risk losing accreditation for its 210 delegates to the party’s nominating convention next summer in Denver.
A refusal to seat delegates from the nation’s fourth-largest state could create divisive floor fights and a public spectacle at a convention normally choreographed to show party unity.
The Iowa caucuses traditionally mark the nation’s first presidential contest, followed by a statewide primary in New Hampshire. The DNC recently agreed to allow Nevada and South Carolina to join the initial mix to bring more Latino and black voters into the early balloting, but it barred any other state from holding a binding presidential primary before the first Tuesday in February, which next year is Feb. 5.
Officials said after the vote Saturday that they took harsh action against Florida in part to send a strong message to Michigan and other states that are considering pushing their party contests into January in violation of party rules.
Karen Thurman, chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, argued that she and her colleagues had done everything possible to adhere to the rules. But, she insisted, Republicans who dominate the Legislature in Tallahassee, the state capital, outmaneuvered them by moving the primary date up in a bill that contained crucial election reforms, forcing Democrats to vote for the Jan. 29 date. The Republican governor then signed it into law.
Members of the rules committee insisted that Florida had alternatives.
The Jan. 29 vote could become a nonbinding “beauty contest” or straw vote for Democrats, they noted, to be followed in February by a separate primary, by party caucuses, mail-in vote or other system that would meet the national party’s calendar rules.
Thurman said a mail-in balloting program would cost $7 million to $8 million, however, and that the money is not available. “This is a difficult situation for all of us,” she said.
But few committee members offered much sympathy.
Garry Shay, a panel member from California, noted that his home state contains 7.1 million Democrats and that it “serves as the ATM of the Democratic Party.” Yet the state party resisted pressure to move its primary date before Feb. 5.
Donna Brazile, a delegate from the District of Columbia, said she hesitated even to offer the Florida party “wiggle room” on its primary date.
“Some people will moan, and some people will shout, but we have to follow the rules,” she said.
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Almost ready Fred Thompson said Saturday that he is in a sound position to make a run for the GOP presidential bid even though others announced candidacies months ago.
“We have done within a few months what other people have spent much longer periods of time doing,” Thompson said in Indianapolis before a keynote speech to the Midwest Republican Leadership Conference.
Thompson, a former Tennessee senator and an actor, received a rousing reception, with many in the crowd of about 500 shouting, “Fred! Fred!”
He is expected to announce his bid early next month, saying Saturday that he will “certainly be making a statement within short order.”
Music to Clinton’s ears Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton returned to her favorite family vacation spot in Massachusetts on Saturday to raise money for her presidential campaign at a celebrity-studded event.
Clinton – accompanied by her husband and their daughter, Chelsea – smiled broadly and swayed to the music as singer Carly Simon and her two children, Ben and Sally Taylor, sang “Devoted to You” for a Martha’s Vineyard crowd of more than 2,000.
Simon predicted the senator from New York will be elected as the nation’s first female president.
“Is it Mrs. President or Madam President?” Simon asked Clinton.
