Sen. Clinton on Seating of Delegates at the Convention

by: XavierLA

Fri Jan 25, 2008 at 12:42:15 PM EST

"I hear all the time from people in Florida and Michigan that they want their voices heard in selecting the Democratic nominee.

"I believe our nominee will need the enthusiastic support of Democrats in these states to win the general election, and so I will ask my Democratic convention delegates to support seating the delegations from Florida and Michigan. I know not all of my delegates will do so and I fully respect that decision. But I hope to be President of all 50 states and U.S. territories, and that we have all 50 states represented and counted at the Democratic convention.

Sen. Clinton will continue abiding by the four-state pledge and not campaign in states with violating elections.

The Obama campaign is on recording as having said the following:

Our position and the position of the DNC is clear -- neither the Florida nor Michigan primaries are playing any role in deciding the Democratic nominee and we are not campaigning in either state.

And yet, they are airing ads in Florida on cable networks such as CNN and MSNBC, which both illustrates the national scope of the race and the Obama campaign's acknowledgement that Florida is an important race.   But the national scope of the race hasn't stopped early state Democratic leaders from protesting Obama's move.

"Words matter, promises matter and pledges matter," said [former Iowa Governor Tom] Vilsack, who ended his own presidential campaign in February 2007 and endorsed Clinton. "It calls into question the promises and pledges he's made on the campaign trail."

Five individuals connected to five different campaigns have confirmed -- but only under condition of anonymity -- that the situation that developed in connection with the Michigan ballot is not at all as it appears on the surface. The campaign for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, arguably fearing a poor showing in Michigan, reached out to the others with a desire of leaving New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the only candidate on the ballot. The hope was that such a move would provide one more political obstacle for the Clinton campaign to overcome in Iowa.

According to Grebner's analysis, Hillary Clinton won 73 delegates from Michigan, which she carried with over 55% of the vote.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's full statement below the jump.

CNN sides with Michigan

by: yvette248

Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 18:21:46 PM EST

Roland Martin, CNN journalist, has taken the side of Michigan and Florida in insisting that the rest of the country should be able to participate in selecting our President. 

Michigan, Florida and others have seen their state officials change the law to force their primaries to the top of the election calendar so that they might have a greater say in who is president.  While these changes have created a huge mess for the campaigns - they are not sure exactly when the voting will take place - I must admit that I'm on the side of the states. It is grossly unfair for Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina to pretty much decide the presidency. 

We need more voices like Martin in the media that are not afraid to speak truth to power. I especially love how he gets down to the nitty gritty in what this whole debate is really about -- and he certainly isn't buying that hogwash about "small markets" that Iowa is gagging us with.  

Iowa and New Hampshire residents want to keep saying it's about tradition. I think it's about money. The TV stations, newspapers, hotels, restaurants, sign companies and other businesses make a ton of dough off these candidates, and they don't want that cash cow to feed others.

He sums it up perfectly by saying this is about fairness. There is nothing fair about less than 10 percent of Americans choosing the next president for the rest of us.

  http://www.cnn.com/2...

Florida Dems retreat from early-primary mess

by: David Boyle

Sat Sep 15, 2007 at 16:45:07 PM EDT

  "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. ...
  ''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. ..."

  Good. I'm glad Howard Dean and the DNC stuck to their guns.

  There's another state Democratic party I could think of, that should be taking the same lessons fast. At least when they're done with the budget mess: a mess that got exacerbated by wasting time to declare a rulebreaking "early primary" in the first place.

Dean, DNC deck Florida for early primary

by: David Boyle

Sat Aug 25, 2007 at 15:09:31 PM EDT

  "The Rules and Bylaws Committee voted to strip Florida of all its delegates to the 2008 democratic National Convention, acording to The Politico. http://www.politico.... ...

Some background may be found here, in a good article from this morning's Washington Post.  http://www.washingto...

Update 1:  It appears that the vote to impose sanctions was nearly unanimous; only one clear dissenting (voice) vote was heard.  The move here is clearly a shot across the bow of Michigan, which is considering legislation to set a January 15 primary that would force New Hampshire up to January 8.  I'm somewhat surprised by the near unanimity here, which is a clear sign of strength for Chairman Dean, who has been a vocal critic of states jumping the gun. ..."

  Well.
  Let's see whether Granholm and others get the message or not. . .