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Face-Off Fixes On Florida

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By WILLIAM MARCH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 14, 2008

TAMPA - Even with the voting and candidate boycott now over, the fight over Florida's Jan. 29 presidential primary is only intensifying.

As Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama scrap over every convention delegate in a nomination race that's virtually tied, they're arguing over whether delegates chosen by the Florida vote should be seated and their votes counted at August's nominating convention.

So are their allies and other political activists, including civil rights leaders who fear the battle over the nomination could take on a racial tinge.

Clinton led in the two boycotted states of Florida and Michigan, "whose votes we believe should be counted," the New York senator's campaign said in a strategy memo Wednesday.

Obama, though, says it would be unfair to seat those delegates because the candidates didn't campaign in those states, so the outcomes don't reflect a fair test. In Michigan, he notes, only Clinton's name was on the ballot, after the Illinois senator and the other candidates removed theirs.

Both states held primaries before Feb. 5, the earliest date allowed under national party rules for most states. For that reason, the Democratic candidates didn't campaign in Michigan or Florida, and the national party says it won't seat their delegates. Delegates, chosen according to the outcome of the primary, vote for the nominee at the convention.

Decision By Superdelegate Expected

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said last week on the Senate floor that the Democratic nomination battle could be headed for "a train wreck" over the issue. He backed off that comment this week, however, saying he thinks unpledged "superdelegates" will break the tie between Obama and Clinton.

Meanwhile, Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, has joined other civil rights leaders in urging Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean to settle the issue of the banned delegates.

If the delegates aren't seated, Bond said in a letter to Dean, "million of voters ... could ultimately have their votes completely discounted," a situation reminiscent of the "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries."

He said that is "making the voters, including minority voters in Florida particularly, victims of the Republican Legislature in Florida," which set the primary for Jan. 29.

Al Sharpton, flamboyant New York civil rights activist, has taken the other side, arguing that "changing the rules now, and seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this point would not only violate the Democratic Party's rules of fairness, but also would be a grave injustice."

Bond and Sharpton both say they're neutral in the primary. Nelson backs Clinton.

In Tampa, James Harris Jr., a lawyer and self-described "political junkie" who favors Obama, filed a complaint with the state Division of Elections saying it would amount to elections fraud to seat the Florida delegates.

"Voters might have behaved differently and the candidates might have behaved differently" if Clinton, John Edwards and Obama had fought it out here, he said. "The voters weren't privy to that experience."

A Division of Elections spokesman said Wednesday the complaint was quickly dismissed because the office has no authority or responsibility over seating delegates.

Counts Reveal Thin Margin

It will take 2,025 delegates to win the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, but Clinton and Obama are so close even small numbers could make a difference.

Obama leads with 1,275 delegates to Clinton's 1,220, according to a count by The Associated Press.

That includes "superdelegates," top party and elected officials whose votes aren't decided by the outcome of their state primaries; they vote their own wishes. Many superdelegates haven't yet announced their leanings.

In Florida on Jan. 29, Clinton's 50-33 percent victory earned her 105 pledged delegates to Obama's 67 and 13 for John Edwards. So far, she has a 7-3 lead among Florida's 22 superdelegates, according to the state Democratic Party.

The Clinton campaign says it won another 63 delegates in Michigan.

"Our position is that the people of Michigan and Florida have already weighed in - and their preferences ought to be honored," Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a conference call with reporters Wednesday.

He noted that a record 1.7 million Democrats turned out for Florida's primary.

The Obama campaign didn't return calls for comment Wednesday, but Obama strategist David Axelrod said Friday, "You can't have rules and then have those rules broken. ...To assign delegates on the basis of those votes would be wholly inconsistent with the rules and with fairness."

Nelson's "train wreck" comment in the Senate last week showed his fears that a convention fight could ensue with a nominee picked by superdelegates "getting in their back rooms deciding, and the turmoil of what to do with Florida and Michigan's delegations."

This week, Nelson said he thinks the superdelegates "will make themselves known" and pick a clear winner before the convention, making the question of whether to seat the banned delegates irrelevant.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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