Suit Over Delegates Rejected

TAMPA - A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by two Tampa Democratic Party activists challenging the national party's ban on the Florida Democratic convention delegation.

U.S. District Judge Richard Lazzara cited what he said is an established legal principle: The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of association gives political parties the right to set their own rules for choosing their presidential nominees.

The party imposed the ban because Florida held its primary Jan. 29, earlier than party rules allowed.

Lazzara rejected allegations of reverse racial discrimination in the lawsuit filed by Victor DiMaio and lawyer Mike Steinberg, chairman of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party. They said they will appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, and seek consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"This isn't the kind of case that's going to be decided at this level," DiMaio said. "The lower, district-court-level judges are leery of making law."

DiMaio said they will pursue appeals even though a decision coming Saturday by a party committee could make the issue moot. The national party's rules committee, which imposed the ban, will meet in Washington to decide whether to uphold or modify it. A compromise, including a delegation half the normal size or with half the voting strength, is considered likely.

The lawsuit said the party allowed South Carolina and Nevada to hold primaries in January, along with Iowa and New Hampshire, because of their large numbers of black and Latino voters.

Other states were supposed to wait until Feb. 5.

Lazzara said in announcing his decision that there was "not one scintilla of evidence" that the party was engaging in racial discrimination by allowing Nevada and South Carolina to have early primaries.

"I don't live in a cave, and I know that there are many people out there who are disgruntled" by the sanctions, Lazzara said, but, "The Democratic National Committee put everyone on notice that these were the rules everyone had to live by. The Florida Legislature in its infinite wisdom, for whatever reason, decided to ignore those rules."

At least one other federal lawsuit over the issue is still active, by state Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller of Cooper City. He alleges that the party failed to follow its own rules in imposing the ban, and therefore denied Florida voters equal protection of law.