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Nelson, Hastings Sue Their Party To Save Delegate Votes

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By Billy House of The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2007

Related Coverage: Blog: March On Politics | More Political News

WASHINGTON - Two Florida Democratic members of Congress this morning launched a federal lawsuit against their national party over its threatened refusal to count the state's delegates because of Florida's too-early Jan. 29 primary.

Sen. Bill Nelson
AP Photo

The suit, filed in federal court in Tallahassee by Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar, emphasizes the plan would deny up to 4.2 million culturally, socially and economically diverse Florida voters a say in picking a Democratic nominee for president.

The suit also charges that Democratic National Committee leaders are engaging in an election scheme that will result in "impairing minority voter participation," which would be a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"They won't count my vote, or Rep. Hastings', or the votes of more than 4 million registered Democrats," says Nelson, in remarks prepared for a news conference this morning in the Capitol to announce the lawsuit.

Rep. Alcee Hastings
AP Photo

"But it's really a lawsuit about the right of every American to have access to the ballot box, and to have their vote count – and, to have it count as intended," Nelson said.

The lawsuit specifically names as defendants former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and the DNC. Also named as a defendant in the 26-page complaint is Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning, who's job it is to oversee the taxpayer-funded $18 million primary.

DNC officials did not immediately return
telephone calls for comment.

The lawsuit points to previous controversies involving election problems in Florida and the effect the state can have on a national election.

"In 2000, Florida was the center of an unprecedented and ultimately unsuccessful battle to secure a recount in the presidential election," the lawsuit states. "That extraordinarily intensive process … resulted in the rejection of tens of thousands of paper ballots that, if counted, would have changed not just an election, but the future course of national and world events."

The DNC imposed sanctions against the state after Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature moved the state's primary to Jan. 29 – in violation of its party primary calendar that guarantees several other states they will be first-in-the-nation contests.

The suit argues Florida voters have a fundamental right to participate in selecting a presidential nominee.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to find that basic legal and constitutional rights of voters are being violated.

Although the DNC is a political group, it operates in tandem with the state and performs a public function that directly affects the right of Floridians to have their votes count. Thus, the lawsuit contends, its actions should be subject to the basic protections of the U.S. Constitution.

Legal scholars have said there might be some validity to Florida's argument but that political parties have significant legal room to make their own rules.

In the past, particularly in a series of cases out of Texas known as the "White Primary" cases from the 1920s through the mid-1900s, courts have held that an individual has a constitutional right to vote in a primary election and that a political party cannot take actions that result in denying, diluting or diminishing that vote.

Nelson and Hastings' lawsuit argues the right to vote trumps the rights of a political party, including the right to enforce its rules for primary elections.

"One would have thought that we wouldn't need this type of discussion 42 years after passage of the Voting Rights Act," Hastings said. "The right to vote and have your vote matter is the cornerstone of our democracy."

The suit also contends that voters are being denied interaction with presidential candidates because the DNC also has barred campaign appearances in Florida except for private fundraisers.

Equally troubling, says Nelson, is that "the average citizen no longer can see their candidates for president."

"This is unacceptable. Paying for political participation is unacceptable, just as a poll tax was unacceptable," he said.

Though the suit speaks for Democrats, Nelson and Hastings noted that Republicans in Florida soon may face a similar problem. National Republican Party leaders are threatening to strip half the state's GOP delegates to its national convention because of the earlier primary date.

Reporter Billy House can be reached at 202 662-7673 or at bhouse@tampatrib.com

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