The delegate fight: FL and MI
Posted: Friday, March 07, 2008 9:09 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Democrats
"I'll leave it up to the Democratic National Committee to make a decision about how to resolve it," Obama told ABC News last night. "But I certainly want to make sure that we've got Michigan and Florida delegates at the convention in some fashion."
What say you, Howard Dean? “‘All they have to do is come before us with rules that fit into what they agreed to a year and a half ago, and then they'll be seated,’ the DNC chairman said, during a round of interviews Thursday on network and cable TV news programs. The two state parties will have to find the funds to pay for new contests without help from the national party, Dean said. ‘We can't afford to do that. That's not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race,’ he said. The DNC offered to pay for an alternative contest in Florida last summer but was turned down, officials at the party say.”
Per the New York Times, "Granholm, a Clinton supporter, said Thursday that there would be a noisy protest at the Democratic convention if the Michigan delegation was not seated. But she left open the possibility of a new Democratic primary, as long as the taxpayers or the state party do not have to foot the bill. ‘If there is a redo, it has to be inclusive,’ she said. ‘Whatever it is would have to be a primary-like election.’”
“Florida officials said rerunning a statewide primary could cost as much as $18 million, which some state officials consider prohibitive. ‘A revote is not going to happen,’ said Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, a supporter of Mrs. Clinton. Michigan officials did not estimate the cost of a new election, but party leaders involved in negotiating a solution said that a full statewide election, as opposed to a caucus, could cost as much as $10 million."
More from Granholm: "’Although there have been a lot of conversations about how to assure that our delegation is seated, the logistics and cost of any firehouse primary may simply be insurmountable,’ said Liz Boyd, Granholm's press secretary. Granholm's comment instantly deflated hopes in Michigan of finding a solution, barely a day after expressions of optimism. ‘That took the oxygen out of the room,’ said one Democrat in the middle of the discussions, who talked about the deliberations on the condition of anonymity. ‘I'm regrouping.’”