Suburban Guerrilla

Feed on: Posts; Comments

« Fed Bailout

Props »

Why The Florida Vote Needs To Count

Mar 13th, 2008 at 7:57 am by Susie

The explanation, via Wampum.

Posted in Blind Justice, Politics As Usual

7 Responses to “Why The Florida Vote Needs To Count”

on 13 Mar 2008 at 8:23 am1Tim H.

Florida should just do the damn revote and get it out of the way.
on 13 Mar 2008 at 8:33 am2Michael Bloom

Why is this admittedly exculpatory information only coming out now? Or have I not been reading enough blogs, ha ha?
on 13 Mar 2008 at 10:16 am3mbw

Michael, that’s from a website set up before the January 29th primary.

And I admit that I was distracted (too much getting ready to apply to law school in order to protect the vote, and not enough actual protecting of the vote) but there are those of us who are not Obama/Clinton partisans (Edwards/Gore here) who want the vote counted because it’s the right thing to do. When I say counted, btw, I accept a revote. I just don’t ever want to see Democrats disenfranchise voters, especially in Florida.
on 13 Mar 2008 at 11:52 am4Kevin

Can’t leave this out….

From a post on Democrats.org:

“I don’t think anybody made us aware of that until the very end of the process,” said Marco Rubio, the Republican state House speaker.

And Jeremy Ring, a Democratic state senator from Broward County and co-sponsor of the legislation, defended it.

“If the choice is Florida is relevant and has no delegates versus being irrelevant and having delegates, I’d choose being relevant with no delegates,” Ring said. “We did this so 18 million Floridians could take part in the presidential primaries, not so a few hundred people can go to a party in Denver.”

I, personally, don’t think Marco is being honest about all this, but that last line of this excerpt is the greatest. AND he’s from Broward County, no less!!
on 13 Mar 2008 at 1:49 pm5mbw

Jeremey Ring was a first-term state senator (elected 2007) who seems to have very little understanding of the actual workings of the Democratic Party, his only prior political experience on Kerry’s campaign. The National Convention is so much more than a party, and the delegates are elected to represent those 18 million Floridians (or at least the Democratic portion of them.) I wonder if he views his job in Tallahassee as merely attending a party too.

Ironically, he was an Obama supporter who withdrew his endorsement after Obama criticized the primary move.
on 13 Mar 2008 at 6:24 pm6grascarp

If they allow a revote in Florida, those Florida Democratic voters suddenly have incredible influence over who will become the party’s nominee.

Dr. Dean seemed to have disenfranchised Florida’s registered Democrats because the DNC wanted to limit early voting to the traditional early primary states. The Republicans in the Florida Legislature out maneuvered the DNC by moving up the election date and Howard Dean responded by dismissing the votes of Floridians in his party.

Prior to the 29 January Florida Primary , Democrats in that state were told their vote wouldn’t count and that Florida’s delegates wouldn’t be seated at the convention. Turnout was limited and Dr. Dean strutted around like a banty rooster declaring that the rules would not be changed.

Now, we learn the rules might be changed to allow a revote in Florida. Once again the Florida voters have been used by senior officials to contort the election process and most people seem to think it’s a swell idea. Sen. Clinton’s supporters have no problem with a revote in Florida because their candidate can use a complex change in the rules to obtain the nomination. A revote in Florida seems like pre-convention shennigans employed to further the chances of the Clinton machine.
on 13 Mar 2008 at 7:28 pm7Aaron Pratt

The Clinton campaign can’t resist their instictual urges to change the rules in the middle of the game. Not only do the ends justify the means, the ends simply don’t matter to them. It’s all about gaming the outcome, and adjusting the truth to match the argument. I have to assume when all the Democratic candidates signed on to the agreement that they would not count delegates from Florida and Michigan that Clinton had her fingers crossed.