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Clinton Hails 'Vote Of Confidence' Over Rival Obama

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By BILLY HOUSE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 30, 2008

Updated: 01/30/2008 12:55 am

TAMPA - New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won Florida's Democratic primary Tuesday, a contest diminished by a clash between the state and national parties that left no delegates at stake and caused the candidates to mostly stay away.

Clinton won by a double-digit margin over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, but the difference was below the point spread in some recent polls that had her up by as much as 24 to 27 percentage points.

Despite the circumstances of the primary, Clinton declared Florida to be a big win for her headed into next week's Super Tuesday voting in more than 20 states.

"I am thrilled to have this vote of confidence," said Clinton at a rally in Davie in Broward County, a nationally televised event intended to project her restored momentum after last week's lopsided loss to Obama in South Carolina.

"I could not come here in person to ask you for your votes, but I am here to thank you for your votes today," she added.

Obama was in Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday night and did not deliver a concession speech. His campaign continued to downplay the Florida primary's significance, noting it didn't gain Clinton any additional delegates toward winning the party's presidential nomination and that the Democratic hopefuls had pledged to boycott the state, anyhow.

The only statement from Obama's campaign came from spokesman Bill Burton, who said, "Now that Senator Clinton has lost badly in South Carolina, she's trying to assign meaning to a contest that awards zero delegates and where no campaigning has occurred."

"Senator Clinton's own campaign has repeatedly said that this is a 'contest for delegates,' and tonight Florida awarded zero," Burton said.

Analysts Try To Sort It Out

Political analysts were left trying to calibrate the significance of Clinton's Florida victory in such odd circumstances.

Before the results came in, several had said that anything short of a double-digit victory would spell problems for her and could even be seen as an Obama victory of sorts.

That's because Clinton since last summer has registered consistent leads of more than 20 percentage points in respected polls of Florida Democratic voters, much of that attributed to her greater name recognition.

"Clearly, this is a big victory," said Stephen Craig, a University of Florida political scientist, after several media outlets projected Clinton the winner.

Even with no delegates at stake, Craig said the New York senator should be credited for meeting the high expectations placed on her by the early polling and that "momentum matters, and Clinton's got it now."

State Democratic Party chairwoman Karen Thurman was exultant that despite the long controversy over the Democratic primary and whether it would count, it produced a huge Democratic turnout and attention on national news.

"Democrats really showed up today," she said.

Figures compiled by the party staff showed 1.5 million Democrats had cast votes, with 24 percent of the state's precincts yet to be counted. By comparison, about 1.3 million Democrats voted in the next-largest presidential primary turnout, in 1988.

Asked about Obama's attempt to play down the significance of the vote, Thurman said, "A lot of people tried to distract Florida voters from the Democratic primary, and it had no effect."

But even with Clinton's big margin of victory, said New York-based national pollster John Zogby, her opponents can validly argue that nobody actively campaigned in the state.

What made this primary peculiar was not just that no delegates were at stake, but also that Obama and Clinton signed voluntary agreements not to campaign in Florida.

That pledge not to campaign was one of the repercussions spilling out of the battle between the Democratic National Committee and Florida over the timing of the state's setting its primary in violation of national party rules.

Those rules demanded that all but a few states stick to Feb. 5 or later. Most states did so, but Florida and Michigan did not.

The fight ultimately led to the DNC stripping Florida of all 210 of its delegates. Michigan lost its 128.

Clinton Played It Close

Clinton's campaign worked hard since last week to lend credibility to the importance of today's outcome.

Clinton arrived in Florida on Sunday for two fundraisers, but that kept within the terms of the pledge.

She skated close to violating the pledge in some other respects, however. For instance, she has let it be known since last week that she thinks Florida's delegates should be seated at the national nominating convention this summer, as well as Michigan's delegates.

In her victory speech in Davie, Clinton repeated that she will seek to seat Florida's delegates at the convention.

To win the party's presidential nomination, Clinton or Obama needs to bring 2,025 delegates to the party's convention. Against that background, Florida's and Michigan's delegates could become crucial.

Clinton also won Michigan, which held its primary Jan. 15. In that race, Clinton's name remained on the ballot while Obama removed his.

But seating Florida's delegates, or Michigan's - at least in the Clinton column - is not likely to happen without a battle at the party's convention with the Obama camp.

"At this stage, the Florida Democratic primary is a beauty contest. But now they might wind up eventually fighting over Florida's delegates at the convention," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute.

Asked in an interview Tuesday night if she would go to court to seat the Florida and Michigan delegates, Clinton responded, "This is all pretty premature."

For her part, Clinton has accused Obama of violating the pledge by airing a national television ad that reached viewers in Florida.

In Tampa, Frank Sanchez, a local organizer and fundraiser for the Obama campaign, said, "The numbers aren't exactly the way we wanted them in Florida, but they're not bad."

Four weeks ago, he added, the Obama campaign was down by 30 points in some polls. "We made up a lot of ground. Come Feb. 5, we're going to make up a lot more ground. We've got no reason to be disappointed tonight."

A circle of college students sat at an Obama watch party watching a screen as Clinton gave her victory speech. Nathan Nandkishorelal, 19, a management information systems junior at the University of Tampa, yelled up at the screen, "You got nothin.'"

One of his table mates, William Ross, 21, a government student at UT said: "I expected it. Realistically, it works out to our benefits because delegates that would go to Hillary aren't going to Hillary" because Florida delegates are not being counted. "I'm not disappointed."

But delegates or not, there was celebration by Clinton supporters gathered Tuesday night in Tampa, including former Tampa Mayor Sandy Freedman.

Stacy Frank of Tampa said the Clinton victory was a "true win." She said a big primary vote turnout showed that Democrats were energized and "felt their vote did count."

Reporters William March, Mike Salinero and Karen Branch-Brioso contributed to this report. Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 641-5080 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.

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