See also: Video/audio proof: FL Dems' feeble attempt to stop GOP from setting early primary date by pattyp.
As far back as 9/07 and as recently as 5 days ago MakeItCountFlorida.com - the Florida Democratic Party's own PR website for its uncontested primary - carried on its FAQ page a certain item 10, which among other things included the following inconvenient passage:
...the Florida Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee voted twice to go with the January 29th primary date...
But now this FAQ item has been crudely scrubbed from the site. If you float your mouse down the list of hyperlinked bullet points on the current version of the FAQ page you'll notice that the list now skips from item 9 to 11.
conintued...
MakeItCountFlorida.com FAQs, item 10
"Why not just do the caucus or a vote-by-mail program?"
The Party considered many options to comply with DNC Rules, but none were able to meet the goals of holding an open and fair process, maximizing participation, protecting the right to vote and building the Democratic Party. Additionally, the other solutions would either 1) fail to reach all Democrats; 2) spend money we don’t have or that should be spent on winning elections; and/or 3) confuse voters by taking away from Jan. 29th.
A VBM would cost upwards of $8 million and to conduct caucuses to determine the state’s presidential preference would have been the same. Although we looked at caucus proposals that had a cheaper price tag, those proposals would have disenfranchised core constituencies within our party – seniors and lower income voters – and also limited outreach and education that would have been so desperately needed in every county and every community across the state to minimize confusion.
So the Florida Democratic Party’s State Executive Committee voted twice to go with the January 29th primary date on the grounds that any other option would result in the disenfranchisement of Florida Democratic voters and that Florida had already been through too much of this before.
(from Google cache as retrieved on 12 Mar 2008 08:12:26 GMT, my emphasis)
For comparison, here is Florida State Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman's statement on the primary situation from today (3/17/08):
Dear Florida Democrats,
For a year now, the Florida Democratic Party has tried to comply with the Delegate Selection Rules of the Democratic National Committee.
We researched every potential alternative process - from caucuses to county conventions to mail-in elections - but no plan could come anywhere close to being viable in Florida.
We made a detailed case to the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, but we were denied.
Our Democratic legislators in Tallahassee tried to set the Florida primary on Feb. 5, instead of Jan. 29, but of course, their proposed amendment to House Bill 537 was greeted with laughter and derision from the Republicans who control the state government.
....
(my emphasis)
I guess you could say that Thurman has a fairly high threshold for what is "viable." According to the scrubbed FAQ item the contest must: be open and fair, maximize participation, protect "the right to vote", build the Democratic Party, reach "all Democrats", spend no money that they don't have or don't want to spend, and not confuse people by "taking away from" the January 29th date.
I would also add that the proposed amendment to HB 537 which Chair Thurman refers to was offered without a request for debate, was rejected on a voice vote, and - according to DNC member Jon Ausman from Florida - was transparently not offered in earnest.