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Local Democrats Organize For Clinton, Evade Boycott

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By BILLY HOUSE and WILLIAM MARCH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 30, 2007

VIENNA, Va. - Democratic leaders from states that pushed for sanctions and a candidate boycott against Florida's presidential primary said Thursday that those actions won't hurt their nominee's chances of winning the White House in 2008.

Gathered here for the Democratic National Committee's fall meeting, they insisted Republican candidates aren't getting an edge by actively campaigning in the traditional swing state, including their gathering for a nationally televised debate Wednesday night in St. Petersburg.

"They voters are more interested in results and issues and how this affects their lives," said New Hampshire Democratic chairman Raymond Buckley. "This primary stuff is not terribly relevant to their day-to-day lives," he said.

"We won't lose Florida," declared South Carolina's Democratic Party chairwoman Carol Fowler. "We need Florida.

Still, there are signs of frustration in the Sunshine State.

A group of Tampa Democratic stalwarts has formed a local grass-roots effort to organize for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, independent of her national campaign.

The group includes some of Tampa's most prominent Democratic fundraisers and activists: former Mayor Sandy Freedman, 2002 gubernatorial candidate Bill McBride, Clerk of Court Pat Frank and daughter Stacy, school board member April Griffin, former county Commissioner Phyllis Busansky, state Sen. Arthenia Joyner and others.

They have a Web site, www.tampaforhillary.com, and are starting local grass-roots organizing efforts.

A Quinnipiac University poll of Floridians released last month showed that 62 percent of all voters, including roughly equal percentages of Democrats, Republicans and no-party voters, said the sanctions were wrong. When asked whether the sanctions would make them less likely to vote for the Democratic nominee, 22 percent of the unaffiliated voters said it would.

The leading Democrats have agreed to a request by the Democratic parties in the early primary states - Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina - to boycott Florida until its Jan. 29 primary is over.

That isn't stopping Tampa's Clinton supporters. "We decided that since the Democratic Party was kind of mixed up on what they were going to do in Florida, we'd organize right here and try to get some grass-roots effort started," Freedman said.

She said it doesn't violate the pledge, because the group has no link to the national campaign - it doesn't even get campaign bumper stickers or yard signs.

McBride, a veteran of many national campaign efforts, said, "It's not a bad deal; you can do whatever you want without having to ask permission."

However, he acknowledged the effort is "less intense than it would be without the boycott, or than it will be after the primary, when the boycott's over."

Despite their efforts, McBride and Freedman both said they don't believe the contention made by Republicans, and some Democrats, that the boycott will hurt the eventual nominee's chances of winning Florida in 2008.

Florida soon won't be alone in being sanctioned by party. This weekend, Democrats in Michigan, another big swing-state, expect to join Floridians in being similarly punished by the party for violating the party's primary calendar rules.

"What's good for the goose, is good for the gander," said Allan Katz of Tallahassee, Florida's only member of the DNC rules committee.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com. Reporter William March can be reached at wmarch@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7761.

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