The Unintended Impact of the Re-Vote Movement
Sun Mar 09, 2008 at 02:50:26 PM PDT
The talk in Florida today is that suddenly a re-vote in Florida by mail is gaining momentum.
A mail-in primary appeared to be the favorite solution Sunday as politicians and pundits grappled with how to lift the state's renegade status. A mail-in election could cost as much as $6 million, Sen. Bill Nelson said, and since Governor Dean has said he's not going to do it in the DNC, the Florida Democratic Party's going to have to go out and raise the money.
You can read the entire Miami Herald piece
here.
What I haven't heard mentioned anywhere are the Convention rules that state if a state holds their determining election after May 1 they are entitled to an additional 30% of their delegates. According to my figures, this would be approximately an additional 60 delegates for Florida and 46 for Michigan.
This is still a long way from a done deal in Florida. The repercussions are significant. The money won't come from the DNC. It's highly unlikely the FDP would turn to the state of Florida and it's Republican governor to run the election to determine their delegates. And the thought of the Florida Democratic Party running a vote by mail for the 4,137,067 registered Democrats (eligible for the 1/29/08 primary) is mind boggling.
To me, this seems to be a turn that we should avoid at all cost. Can you imagine the fate of our Democratic nominee resting on the ability to count the votes in an election like this in FLORIDA? I live here - I certainly can't.
And do you really want to reward Florida and Michigan with an additional 100+ delegates as a result of their inability to follow the rules as originally published?
And what do you say to the 1.7 million Democrats who cast a vote on January 29? Oh, nevermind! Or the thousands of Democrats who showed up at local congressional caucuses on March 1 to elect their district delegates. Or to the delegates who were actually elected at those caucuses?
The light at the end of the tunnel here truly does seem to be an oncoming locomotive! To avoid the impending train wreck, I believe the only solution is for the party chair to insist that the two campaigns sit down with him and work out a solution that prevents this pending implosion.
To fail to do so is only going to exacerbate the current problem, drag out this process until the convention meets in late August and result in a schism that will totally undo the potential gains waiting for the Democratic Party in November.
Permalink | 83 comments