Posted on 09/22/2007 4:48:29 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Fla. Dems to keep Jan. 29 primary
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago
The Florida Democratic Party will stick with a Jan. 29 presidential primary even if it means losing all its nominating convention delegates, a party source said Saturday.
The Democratic National Committee gave the state party until Sept. 29 to come up with an alternative delegate selection plan to stay within party rules, such as caucuses or a vote-by-mail primary, but party leadership has rejected that idea.
State party Chairman Karen Thurman, members of the congressional delegation and state legislative leaders were scheduling a news conference Sunday to announce their position. State party staff has been polling executive committee members and determined at least 75 percent support for the early primary, the source said. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because executive committee members were still be notified.
The DNC Rules Committee voted last month to strip Florida of its 210 delegates if the state party held a primary before Feb. 5. Major Democratic presidential candidates have signed a pledge to restrict campaigning in Florida if it violates party rules.
Democratic Party rules say states cannot hold their 2008 primary contests before Feb. 5, except for Iowa on Jan. 14, Nevada on Jan. 19, New Hampshire on Jan. 22 and South Carolina on Jan. 29. Michigan has scheduled a Jan. 15 primary.
Florida's Republican Legislature voted last spring to set the Jan. 29 primary date, and Republican Gov. Charlie Crist signed it into law. In June, the state Democratic Party voted to go along with the date, saying it was the best chance to get as many people involved in the process as possible. It reaffirmed the vote in August.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Gee, maybe the Dems aren’t as united as the MSM would have us believe.
Gee I guess this means the Dem candidates will stay away from Florida. /s
this is brilliant. the DNC is going to disgruntle 25 electoral votes going into the general.
No, the FL libs know that getting HRC nominated will be a matter of fact long, long before the convention. Convention delegates will be meaningless. I think FL will go for HRC, as it did for her “husband” in 1996.
I live in FL, and I was polled on this on the phone two days ago.
My dream scenario is that the Florida Party divorces themselves from the DNC and goes independent, sort of like the Episcopalian congregations that wouldn’t go along with “gay marriage.”
I hope it becomes nasty...real nasty.
Question is...will this ensure the state our way in november?
Fantastic. The Dems ought to have the distinction of disenfranchising the State of Florida every year.
I wonder if they are going to give the same treatment to Michigan.
There is a lot of bad news right now for Dems, with this in Florida (and potentially Michigan), the proposed ballot initiative in California which will probably pass that would split California EC votes, and the extremly low popularity of the Democrats in Congress as they have alienated both patriotic Americans AND war opponents by being political yet ineffective sellouts.
It really could be a perfect storm in 2008 for a Republican sweep back into full power.
oooooorrrr the DNC knows FL is a lost cause so they are fashioning a Florida Free strategy in the general election.
This could well bode well for us.
Or, IBTRYMB post?
If Michigan doesn’t tilt red in ‘08, it never will.
The dems have promised to boycott us — HUZZAH!!! — and the GOP is on Mackinac Island this weekend. ALL of the big guns are there — Romney, Gingrich, Giuliani, Thompson, Hunter — giving our state all they’ve got AND blasting our idiot governor Jenny and the Dems for wanting to hike our income taxes 18%, add a 2% service tax AND a 1% sales tax.
Oh, did I mention the state government will probably shut down Oct. 1st? Not that it’s a bad thing.
“It really could be a perfect storm in 2008 for a Republican sweep back into full power.”
Let’s hope!:)
“There is a lot of bad news right now for Dems, with this in Florida (and potentially Michigan), the proposed ballot initiative in California which will probably pass that would split California EC votes, and the extremly low popularity of the Democrats in Congress as they have alienated both patriotic Americans AND war opponents by being political yet ineffective sellouts.”
California is going to pass. RATS will sue in court and will win. They will win in the 9th circuit and it will be overturned in the SCOTUS. The RATS will try to hold that off until after 2008 and lacking that will blame the Republican party for it.
IMHO, I think our electoral vote system should be based on county. You win your county, you get a vote. Every county in the US gets 1 vote.
However, it does seem to indicate to me that the national DNC is forsaking FL in the general election, which in turn tells me their focus is entirely on some combination of OH, MO, NM, and NV. Possibly Kerry's poor showing in 2004 combined with Crist's high favorability ratings have led them to the conclusion that they shouldn't expend their resources in FL.
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