Florida
News on the Florida primary
The Boston Globe: “Florida state Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski told The Associated Press [yesterday] that Florida officials have been talking with campaign representatives of Obama and Hillary Clinton about recognizing all or some of Florida's 211 delegates.
“In Michigan, Democratic leaders have settled on a plan to give Clinton 69 delegates and Obama 59 as a way to get the state's delegates seated at the national convention. Clinton won the Jan. 15 Michigan primary and was to get 73 pledged delegates under state party rules, while Obama was to get 55.”
From NBC's Mark Murray
The Clinton campaign has just released a letter than Hillary Clinton penned to Obama, asking him to join her to find a solution to resolve the controversy over the Florida and Michigan delegations.
"I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan," she says. "It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee."
Below is the letter...
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The Wall Street Journal: "One possible outcome that rules-committee members were talking about Wednesday is to seat the states' unpledged superdelegates and half of their pledged delegates. But even that proposal could generate fireworks. The Clinton campaign wants the primary results to be used to determine how the pledged delegates are allocated, a move that could cut Sen. Obama's lead by 40 or 50 votes, by some calculations.”
“Sen. Obama has argued that the delegates be divided evenly, which would preserve his lead. Committee members predicted that Sen. Obama could drop that demand if superdelegates begin drifting to his side after the latest primaries. But the senator's campaign, in a statement Wednesday, said it stands by its position ‘the most equitable resolution is an equal split of the delegates.’”
The Los Angeles Times: "Harold M. Ickes, a Clinton strategist who sits on the DNC's rules committee, said he would argue that Florida and Michigan had been punished enough by the rules that prevented the candidates from campaigning there, and that the party needs to curry favor with voters in these two general-election battlegrounds. Ickes said that seating Florida and Michigan -- and assigning delegates according to the January voting -- was part of a broader strategy to bring Clinton within 100 delegates of Obama. Then she would continue to press her case with superdelegates -- party insiders whose votes will decide the nomination -- that they should give her the nomination because she could pose a stiffer challenge to presumptive GOP nominee John McCain.”
“The rules committee offers the Clinton campaign some built-in advantages. Thirteen members have endorsed her, and just eight are declared Obama backers. One of the committee chairs is Alexis M. Herman, Labor secretary under President Clinton. The committee has wide latitude concerning Florida and Michigan. It could uphold the rules and punishment, seat the entire delegation from each state, split the delegations in half, or even seat all of the superdelegates but only some of the elected delegates."
From NBC's Mike ViqueiraWASHINGTON, D.C. -- A small but very fired up group of Floridians rallied in the street outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters here today, demanding that their primary votes be counted and threatening to literally block the doors of the Democratic Convention if they aren't.
"We will shut down the convention!" exclaimed Rep. Corrine Brown. "If we are not seated, then nobody is going to be seated!"
Brown, a superdelegate pledged to Clinton, addressed a crowd of about 150 who had been bused up to D.C. from Florida this week under the auspices of LULAC, an Hispanic advocacy group. Though Brown and another super who spoke -- Rep. Hilda Solis -- are in the Clinton camp, organizers went out of their way to remove any hint that they favored one or the other Democrat in the race. Many in the crowd wore T-shirts with the name of each Democratic candidate, from Kucinich to Dodd to Richardson to Obama, printed across the back in the shape of a rainbow. There was but one Hillary '08 shirt or button to be seen.
"We're not supposed to talk about that," confided Harriet Meltzer, 83, a member in good standing of the Del Ray Democratic Club, though she allowed that she was, in fact, a Clinton supporter. "What's he going to do when he goes to the Middle East?" she asked of Obama, who she deems to be lacking in experience. "Charm them?"
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From the NBC News Investigative Unit
A Tampa megachurch under scrutiny by Senate investigators directed church staffers to make political contributions to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) when he was a gubernatorial candidate, according to documents obtained by NBC News.
A month-long NBC News investigation also found information indicating that the church's pastor, Randy White, seems to have lied about a business transaction in a deposition made under oath, and misrepresented his religious academic credentials.
Without Walls International, a megachurch founded by televangelists Randy and Paula White, is one of six tax-exempt religious ministries the Senate Finance Committee is examining, amid allegations some of the ministers misused church funds to enrich themselves. Last month, NBC News reported the results of its investigation into some of these allegations.
NBC News obtained an e-mail (some identifying pieces of information in the e-mail have been removed by NBC) in which a Without Walls church staff member reporting to the Whites appears to direct other staffers to make political contributions to Crist when he was a candidate. He who won the gubernatorial race later that year.
Read the full story on the NBC News Investigative blog Deep Background.
It's official: Florida and Michigan re-vote proposals are dead.
Politico's Smith notes that without the re-votes, the Clinton campaign's hope of catching Obama in the popular vote is diminishing. "In Pennsylvania, for instance, more than 1.2 million Democrats turned out for the last contested Democratic primary, the 2002 governor’s race. Given the higher interest, Democratic operatives there — who declined to be quoted speculating — said they could imagine the vote getting as high as 2 million. Under that, highly optimistic scenario, an unprecedented blowout for Clinton — a margin of 20 percent, for instance — would give her 400,000 more votes in the state, and still leave her with more than 300,000 to make up.”
“And few Pennsylvania Democrats actually expect such a result, despite Clinton’s lead in many state polls. Clinton’s convincing victory in Ohio, for instance — a whiter, more conservative state — was by a margin of 10 percent." More: For Clinton to pick up her lead in the popular vote with 6 million ballots cast, she’d need a 12 percent margin across the states — that’s a 56 percent to 44 percent average win. With 5 million ballots, she would need a 14 percent margin — that’s a 57 percent to 43 percent overall victory, including expected defeats in states counting for well over 1 million votes.”
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Is Clinton looking too desperate in her need for more contests? "In a sign of how badly she thinks she needs the Michigan delegates to catch the Democratic front-runner, Senator Barack Obama, Mrs. Clinton made a last-minute schedule change and planned to fly to Detroit on Wednesday to plead with Michigan lawmakers to approve a new primary election in June to replace the January contest that awarded no delegates."
More: "Obama’s campaign has resisted a new contest, saying that Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count and that the Clinton camp was trying to change the rules to suit itself. The Michigan Legislature, which would vote on approving a new election, is deeply torn on it because of cost, legal questions and logistical difficulties." The Clinton campaign is accusing Obama's campaign of standing in the way of a re-vote. But "John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who supports Mr. Obama, said the Obama campaign supported a new election to resolve the impasse — in theory. But it would be expensive and possibly illegal.”
“‘While a redo would be an excellent way to solve it, there’s a little problem of about $12 million,’ Mr. Conyers said. ‘I also question the legality of someone raising private money to conduct a public election.’ Interestingly, Clinton supporters Ed Rendell and Jon Corzine, who ‘are trying to line up money to pay for a Michigan revote,’ contacted the financier George Soros, a Democratic donor, on Monday and asked him to help pay for a revote.”
“Mr. Soros, who has contributed to Mr. Obama but has no formal campaign role, refused, a spokesman, Michael Vachon said, adding, ‘George Soros does not support holding another primary in Michigan, because he believes doing so will further delay the selection of a Democratic candidate for November.’”
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From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Al Sharpton is in Florida and said he is prepared to sue if Florida and Michigan’s delegates are seated as is. He said there are people who didn’t vote because they knew their vote wouldn’t count and “there must be a formula to factor” them in.
“There were many people that did not vote, because the DNC said their vote did not count,” Sharpton said on MSNBC. “Whatever way this is resolved, they must be factored in.”
Sharpton instead called for a re-do of the voting in both states. “There must be a way that people can exercise their right to vote who did not vote.”
Called it “absurd” that Michigan where uncommitted was on the ballot, would get their delegates seated as is.
”If they try to seat as is,” Sharpton said, he and the National Action Network are prepared to file suit.
As we noted in First Read this morning, Sharpton is in Florida to meet with local National Action Network chapters in Orlando, Port St. Lucie and Miami where they will plan to sign up people who will say they didn’t vote because they were “told their vote wouldn’t count. And we’ll do it in Michigan too.”
From WNBC's Brian Thompson
NBC News has learned that New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is willing to raise money to pay for a "redo" of both the Florida and Michigan primaries.
Both states violated Democrat Party rules by holding early primaries, and have been penalized with loss of their delegates to the national concention in Denver.
Apparently, because both states voted for Hillary Clinton, Corzine, along with neighboring Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell -- both strong Clinton supporters -- agreed on Friday to make the offer.
According to remarks Rrendell made on NBC's Meet the Press this morning, he and Corzine are writing a letter to the Washington Post offering to raise half of what he estimated as a $30 million dollar price tag to redo both primaries.
Democrats are divided over how to deal with delegates from the two states, as Clinton and Obama are locked in a tight and increasingly bitter contest for the party's presidential nomination and the right to oppose Republican presumtive nominee John McCain in November.
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From NBC's Lauren Appelbaum
Govs. Charlie Crist (R-FL) and Jennifer Granholm (D-MI) are calling for the DNC to seat their respective state delegates. They stressed they don't want their voters to be "disenfranchised."
"I think it's unconscionable that the Democratic National Committee and frankly the Republican National Committee would not seat and would essentially silence voters both in Florida and Michigan," Crist told NBC News while campaigning for McCain in Florida. "Gov. Granholm and I both agree that our two respective states -- the voices of their voters need to be heard."
"No Democratic candidate can win in November without votes from Michigan and Florida," Granholm, who is a Clinton supporter. "And, frankly we're going to be ticked off a bit if our delegation is not seated. And the DNC does not want that to happen. They don't want us to storm the bestial at the convention in August."
Crist also reiterated what Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said earlier -- if the DNC wants a new primary, the DNC must pay for it.
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