Two Florida Democrats who have raised a large amount of money for the Democratic Party in the past are threatening to withhold all future financial assistance to the Democratic National Committee, if that Committee eliminates all Florida delegates to the 2008 national convention.

Wayne Hogan and his wife have donated more than $730,000 to units of the Democratic Party and its nominees during the past ten years. Also he was the Democratic nominee for U.S. House in the 7th district in 2002, and he spent over $2,000,000 of his own money on his campaign. On August 28, he cancelled a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee that he had planned to host. He said he will also refuse to help the Committee in the future, unless it reverses its decision to deny Florida any delegates to the 2008 national convention.

Dick Batchelor, another Florida fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, said, “If Wayne Hogan turns off the spigot, other people will follow suit. Why should I support the national party when they’re basically vaporizing the influence our delegates would have in the nominating process?”

Florida Democrats could have their delegates restored if they agreed not to use the January 29 presidential primary to elect delegates. But Florida Democrats say setting up a caucus procedure in February would be far too expensive and complicated, especially with so little time to plan caucuses. The Florida Democartic Party has used a presidential primary to choose convention delegates since 1928.

Broward County, Florida, requires high school seniors to complete 20 hours of community service, to graduate. On August 17, the County School Board amended the policy to include political campaigning as part of the definition of “community service.” County Board member Robert Parks opposed the change. He said, “This has all the features of controversy. It opens up a whole new bag of worms. There are approximately 24 political parties registered in Broward County. Some of the parties, such as the Socialist Workers Party, are inconsistent with the character values of this school district.” However, Parks was outvoted.

On August 28, the national committee of the Green Party chose Chicago as the site of the 2008 national convention. One factor boosting Chicago was that the Green Party of Illinois is a fully-qualified party in Illinois, as a result of having polled over 5% for Governor in 2006. The Green Party is the first nationally-organized third party to be fully ballot-qualified in Illinois since 1922. So, by choosing Chicago, the party highlights that success in Illinois.

The convention dates are July 10-13, 2008.