On March 12, Florida Democratic Party state chair Karen Thurman sent a proposal to various leaders of the national Democratic Party, the state Democratic party, and the Clinton and Obama campaigns. Her proposal is for a new presidential primary for Florida Democrats, to be completed June 3. It would combine mail-in balloting and in-person balloting and would cost between $10 and $12 million dollars. Thurman hopes for a resolution on her plan by March 14. See this article. The state party would pay for the primary itself, and is counting on massive donations for that purpose.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
The Demo state party is not nearly paying for this, they are administering it. They set the rules. They subcontract to printers, tabulators, mail-houses, etc. So far as can be determined right now, it seems that the state’s official election apparatus will be used for the list of Demo voters and their addresses & to check signatures when ballots are returned.
Please, if/when this hurry-up process goes wrong, please do NOT blame the county or state election officials in Florida. They have no control over this potential train-wreck.
….not “merely” paying for this….
(sigh)
The whole Florida/Michigan fiasco has some pretty interesting twists and turns.
What this battle boils down to is who has control over the process. Remember it was the DNC that told both of those states their primary results would not be accepted if they were held on the dates the states set. Now it turns out the democrats need those states badly to settle a close race. Without them it appears that neither Hillary or Obama will garner enough committed delegates to win nomination on the first vote without finagling the Super Delegate vote.
If the DNC acquiesce it could set a precedence that Ralph Nader could use to challenge the Bipartisan Debate Commission in order to gain a place in the debates.
If the DNC refuses to seat the Florida and Michigan Delegations we could be in for a convention donnybrook that would be unequalled since the Era of TV Broadcasting began. Not even the Democrat Convention of 1968 will come close.
Watch this one close !
Unless the Democrats are a lot dumber than I think they are, they will find some way to have Florida and Michigan represented at their convention.
“If the DNC acquiesce it could set a precedence that Ralph Nader could use to challenge the Bipartisan Debate Commission in order to gain a place in the debates.”
Please explain, I’m not seeing the connection.
Darryl W. Perry wrote “Please explain, I’m not seeing the connection.”
The major party have asserted that it is their right to control the debate process when they set up the “Bipartisan Debate Commission”. I don’t remember the exact date but I believe the last year The League of Women Voters sanctioned the Presidential debates was 1984. With the Debate Commission as the sole determiner of the debate criterea there is more than a slight conflict of interest.
A similar dispute is now raging between the Democrat Party and the Secretarys of State of Florida and to a lesser extent Michigan. It is the Secretary of State who sets the primary election date but the Democrats set rules countermanding those dates. The states went ahead and held their primaries on the dates they set. If the Democrat Party is brought to court by the disenfranchised voters of Florida and lose this could set a precedence that could be used in other electoral matters include the authority of the Debate Commission.
It’s my understanding that the 2 state Democratic parties violated the national Democratic party’s rule.