Democratic Party Advised To Settle Delegate Squabble

TALLAHASSEE - The woman who oversaw a federal report documenting voter disenfranchisement during Florida's disputed 2000 presidential election is asking the Democratic Party to settle a fight with Florida and Michigan before the party harms itself.

Mary Frances Berry, who was chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights until 2004, is concerned there will be a "bloody" battle at the August convention over the seating of delegates from the two states that have been punished by the Democratic National Committee.

She and Roger Wilkins, a George Mason University history professor and former Justice Department official involved in the civil rights movement, sent party leader Howard Dean the letter by e-mail Sunday.

"Public floor fights have served the Party badly in the past. They left deep-seated ill will and preceded Democratic Party defeats in 1968, and 1972," the letter said. "Resolution of this issue is a matter of fairness, justice and practicality."

The DNC declined to comment on the letter, but a spokesman said the credentials committee will meet before the convention and make a recommendation on seating.

The letter also pointed out that the Democratic Party supported the Help America Vote Act and the Voting Rights Act, both of which "helped ease discontent over disenfranchisement" after the 2000 Florida election, which President Bush won by 537 votes after five weeks of recounts.

The Democratic National Committee stripped both states of their delegates because they violated party rules by holding presidential primaries before Feb. 5. Both states are pushing to have the delegates restored, and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has said the delegates should be seated.

Her rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, hasn't made such a push, but it's widely expected that the nominee will try to seat the delegates for the sake of party unity. Wilkins is an Obama supporter. Berry is not registered with either major party.

Clinton won both states' primaries, but Obama's name wasn't on the Michigan ballot and neither candidate campaigned in either state for the four months leading up to the election after signing pledges to protect the interests of party-approved early voting states.

The DNC's decision to strip the states of all delegates caused critics to say they also stripped millions of Democrats of their right to vote. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Alcee Hastings made that case in a federal lawsuit, which they lost.

"This is an issue about the possible disenfranchisement of people and what makes practical sense and what would be fair," Berry said in a telephone interview.

Berry said she isn't recommending how to resolve the dispute, only that it gets resolved well before the convention.

"There will be a challenge at the convention and there will be a big, bloody fight with everybody arguing," she said. "And at the end of the day you have people going away angry and it's hard to get them together for the general election."

Berry served on the civil rights commission for 25 years and oversaw the 2001 report that studied the Florida election and found thousands of voters, particularly blacks, were disenfranchised.