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For Democrats, Florida Primary May Not Count

Posted by kdawson on from the not-again dept.

be951 writes "Democratic party leaders are seriously considering making the Florida primary 'nonbinding', meaning they could ignore the actual vote by Florida democrats and allow party leaders to decide how Florida's more than 200 delegates are divided up among the candidates. 'I think it's much higher than 50-50 that we will make Jan. 29 a nonbinding' election, said Jon Ausman, a veteran Democratic organizer in Tallahassee and member of the Democratic National Committee. This is in response to Florida's move to an earlier presidential preference primary, which scrambled the primary calendar carefully worked out by the two national parties."

6 of 363 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory... by SighKoPath · · Score: 3, Informative

    I, for one, welcome our new democrat overlords.

    Okay, now that I'm done with that, why would the democrats even consider this? It may be just a primary... but it's usually the most dedicated voters who turn out for primaries. Alienating them would not be a good thing for their party.

    1. Re:Obligatory... by krbvroc1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      This whole fiasco is because of the Primary and Caucus states are in an arms race to maintain their historical place as the 'first'. Iowa always has the first Caucus and New Hampshire the first primary. Other states want to be 'relevant' this cycle and some have moved up their date, causing others to move their dates. The party rules state that no state shall have a primary of caucus before Feb 5, 2008. Florida wants to move theirs earlier which would violate the rule and piss off Iowa and New Hampshire. So as a 'compromise', allowing Florida to move theirs up, but it be non-binding, seems to be the current negotiation.

      The whole system is screwed up in my opinion...

  2. The reason they're doing this by wiredog · · Score: 5, Informative

    Is laid out pretty well in Broder's piece today in the Washington Post.

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  3. They should follow party rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    RTFA

    The party rules are that a state can't hold the primary before February 5. Florida is going to break that rule and the Democrats have to figure out what the penalty should be.

  4. Re:party problem by WreathOfBarbs · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Senate was not always elected by the popular vote. It was intended as a check and balance for the House of Representatives and for Federal power overall. Prior to the 17th amendment Senators were appointed by thier state. This allowed the State interests to be represented as well as the people, and because the States don't like being controlled it provided an effective check on Federal power and didn't encourage such blind adherence to the party line. It may have seemed a good idea at the time to quell the infighting in the state legislatures, but the long term consequences have been disastrous, imparting far too much power to the Federal government. Thus making it easier to influence by lobbyists since both houses are popularly elected and thus need to pander to the lobbyists for campaign funds.

  5. Re:party problem by uab21 · · Score: 3, Informative
    The town is already connected to the airport by ferry.

    He wants the equivalent of "$15,849 per person in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough" to replace a seven minute ferry ride with a bridge almost as long as the Golden Gate and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. That's a lot of ferry tolls they want us to pay for them to save 10 minutes every time they go there and back. Plus maintenance on the bridge. Maintenance on the ferry is probably done by the ferry owner (no idea if the ferry is publicly or privately operated).