Ambitious Re-Vote Plans for Michigan, Florida Heading Down the Tubes
Hillary Clinton waits to speak at a campaign rally in Anderson, Ind., Thursday. (AP Photo)
Despite intensive lobbying from Hillary Clinton and her supporters, the latest pushes for re-votes in Michigan and Florida are heading down the tubes.
The Michigan Senate broke Thursday for a two-week recess without taking any action on a proposal to hold a state-conducted do-over primary June 3 with funding from private donors. A similar proposal in Florida fell apart earlier in the week.
Both states had their delegations stripped from the Democratic National Convention for holding early primaries against the wishes of the national party. Clinton, who is trailing Barack Obama in the delegate count, won the two voided primaries, which would account for 313 pledged delegates.
Aside from courting uncommitted superdelegates and mounting an electoral uprising in the April 22 Pennsylvania primary, seating the Michigan and Florida delegations was one of the stars Clinton needed to align in order for her to take the lead from Obama.
The Democratic National Committee has been firm in its enforcement of the earlier decision not to count the two states’ January primaries. James Roosevelt Jr., co-chairman of the DNC rules and bylaws committee, even told The Boston Globe in an interview published Thursday there’s “no chance” the national party would yield and seat the delegations without another contest, if doing so would influence the outcome of the race.
The prolonged stalemate over the states imperils Clinton’s chances, and the candidates haven’t stopped bickering over a way to make them count.
“I do not understand what Senator Obama is afraid of,” Clinton said Thursday in Terre Haute, Ind. “But it is going to hurt our party and our chances in November, so I would call on him once again to join me in giving the people of Florida and Michigan the chance to be counted as we move forward in this nominating process.”
Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan — one of the reasons he opposes seating the delegation — but Clinton held up the fact that she kept her name on the Michigan ballot as a sign of her commitment to the state.
The Clinton camp has accused Obama of trying to disenfranchise voters, suggesting his words of empowering Americans don’t live up to his actions.
Obama staffers fire back that Clinton has been all over the map on this issue, and his campaign says it is committed to finding a solution. The campaign released a memo Wednesday questioning the legality of holding a new Michigan primary that would ban anyone who voted in the state’s GOP primary from voting again in the Democratic one.
The Obama campaign suggested splitting Michigan’s 128 delegates evenly between the two candidates Thursday, but the Clinton campaign immediately rejected the idea.
“We support a fair solution that allows Michigan Democrats to participate at our National Convention this summer, and we look forward to working with the Michigan Democratic Party and the DNC to achieve that goal,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said Thursday.
One of the concerns with leaving Michigan and Florida out of the Democratic nominating process is that it could alienate Democratic voters when they’re needed most, in the general election.
All sides of this issue have tried proposing a solution.
In Florida, the state’s Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman proposed a mail-in re-vote, but that fell through in the face of opposition from the party’s congressional delegation. In a statement, Thurman tossed the decision to the DNC rules and bylaws committee.
Florida Sen. Bill Nelson recently suggested doing what the Republicans did in his state, which was cut the available delegates in half.
Harold Ickes, who is leading the Clinton campaign’s efforts to secure delegates, said the campaign would look at a mail-in option in Michigan with the failure of the primary bill.
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, along with three other Michigan officials, released a statement Thursday saying they would continue to work to ensure Michigan’s delegates are seated.
“We want to avoid a divisive fight at the credentials committee or on the convention floor,” they said.
FOX News’ Molly Henneberg, Aaron Bruns and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
thank you Howard Dean for yet another fine mess………..he broke it, he should fix it and fix it fast………………
Both states shoud be counted. Who needs a full Re-Vote for Michigan, Florida. A random poll of registered Democrates selected from each county could determine deligates. This would require about 20,000 random “Votes” to determine the 210 delegates. The accuracy would be within about 1-2 votes, probably close enough overall. The other option is to just make all delegates from Florida and Michigan superdelegates and let them fight it out at the convention. Ignoring Florida and Michigan votes is just not the best for the Democratic party.
I think it will only get worse, down the tubes is right.
this should not even be a issue. The DNC made their ruling. Clinton and Obama both agreed.The states knew and held their primmaries early anyway.
What kind of commitment will Clinton stick to if she becomes the president when she can’t commit to her own party.
Will Obama just tell us what we want to hear if he becomes president.
Mr.Obama doesn’t want 9% of the U.S population to count. If you are not for him he doesn’t care about you. If these states were a different set of demographics they wouldn’t dare not be counted.
His message: “If you don’t have something for me, I don’t care about what you have to say.”
I am from a state that will be counted, and I am counting on and for Hillary.
What is Obama afraid of? Are you aware that his loss in Florida occured even though he was the only one to have campaign ads running there? You are not allowed to campaign locally, but he placed national ads in the weeks leading up to the Florida primary. This form of ad purchase is not the most economical or logical way to purchase campaign time and appears to be an attempt to win in a state where he is not the choice of the people. If his ads had worked and he had won you can bet he would be fighting to let the people be heard.
I have read your Philadelphia speech; I have read it over and over; I have read your book; I am not as eloquent as you are, but I have something to say to you.
What you said in Philadelphia was obviously well planned, as was your timing and the venue. You are quite amazing, Senator Obama.
But what you are doing is ten times, no …. thousand times worse than Pastor Jeremiah. It is very clever, yes, and you hide it well; what you are planning is racial incitement under a cloak of dignity. You are using Holy things, you play with them; to you the voter is just an object to use, you know that, Senator, but you want to be Messiah more than you want to be President. You are brilliant, we know that, but we know what drives you.
You disgust me, Senator. You obviously think enough American Voters are as dumb and gullible as you wish them to be, to obtain your dark objectives. You plant the seeds of destruction …. no one sees you are the one behind it; then another Grand Speech to inflate your massive Ego; while you tear the Heart out of America.
That is why you answer questions through cleverly designed statements in these columns; so you don’t have to reveal who you are.
Very clever, yes Sir, but you will ultimately Fail, and Fall, because America is much greater than you are.
Hillary is a Champion!
Hillary has championed the rights of Michigan and Florida citizens right to be counted!
The DNC has approved the plan!
Michigan Hillary supporters are ready to get there fellow citizens voices counted
Senator Obama keeps finding a way to say NO to counting both Florida and Michigan’s voices
Senator Obama’s supporters are blocking there own citizens voices from being counted
WHY? Who is playing politics?
Whaaaaaa our hearts are bleeding that one more avenue for Clinton to attempt to steal the election has been slammed in her face…….guess you guys could alway6s hire her at Fox?
I don’t understand why something like the “superdelegate” principle can’t be applied, with regard to these states.
Political leaders, such as mayors, for example, could poll their communities(e.g. do random samples) and also use their own judgments regarding “electability”, for example, in deciding whether to support Obama or Clinton. Both camps and the nati
I can understand the cost involved in doing a re-vote, and the aforementioned might be a reasonable compromise.
It is not fair for the people in Florida and Michigan not to be represented, in some way, in the nomination process.
Obama needs to step down! Wright is and will always be his mentor. and with that mentoring who needs enemies in America.
Obama needs to step down! He has chosen his mentor for twenty years knowing that he hates America, knowing all the horrible and disgusting comments and sermons he has made. We do not need this, America does not need this..Send the message that we Love America and that we are not going to put up with this.
Obama needs to step down.