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NJ Governor Jon Corzine and Pennsylvania Ed Rendell have offered a plan to re-stage the Florida and Michigan Democratic primaries. The two men, both Clinton supporters, say they will raise half of the $30 million it would take for new primaries. Funny, where's Governor Spitzer, who said he'd support Clinton but has called Obama "spectacular"?
Corzine told the Star-Ledger, "We ought to have a revote. I think the money would be available if it brought peace to the party and a resolution to the nomination." He added that he would contribute, "I'm not going to be the overwhelming proportion of the money. But I'm more than happy to try to contribute to be part of a national solution."
Rendell appeared on Meet the Press, to argue Clinton's strength, noting that Obama has won states with 190 electoral votes whereas Clinton has won states with 260 votes, "And we decide the presidency not by a popular vote, we decide it by the electoral vote." When MtP's Tim Russert pointed out Rendell was counting Florida in the vote, Rendell insisted she won and called for a revote.
Barack Obama supporter former senator Tom Daschle was also on the program and he said the Obama campaign would "absolutely" support a privately-funded revote. And Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean told Face the Nation that everyone's working on a compromise, but emphasized DNC money will be used for the presidential campaign to "convince the American people that our nominee is better than Senator McCain... We don’t think knock-down, drag-out fights are ever good between Democrats. We'd much prefer to have this all settled well before we get to the convention, if that can happen.”
And the Reverend Al Sharpton is headed to Florida today, to "compile lists of residents who skipped the January contest because they thought their votes would not count." He has threatened to sue if the Florida and Michigan delegates are seated.
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The whole big state v. small state distinction sounds nice but is meaningless. Sure, you have to win the big states to win the general election, but in the primaries, you are only running against a candidate from your own party.
Just because Hillary wins a state by 3% of the subgroup of registered Democrats who actually voted in a given Democratic primary does NOT mean that she is going to do better than Obama, or vice versa, in a general election where everyone votes and the choice is between the Democrat and Republican candidate.
The big state win argument gets repeated again and again by Hillary supporters, because it's all they have, but that doesn't make it true.
Why does the rest of the country have to keep paying for Florida not having their shit together? They knew the consequences of holding their primary early. If they want their vote to count, Florida should have to pay 100% of the costs to hold another primary. This shouldn't have even reached the point of debate.
amen david. amen
I want to be Al Sharpton when I grow up. "Straighten up, or I'll SUE you!"
Agreed David... this is only a rest of the country issue because Hillary needs Florida delegates to count, and if Florida can't fund that, someone else will have to. If Hillary didn't need Florida, you can bet that the argument would be to stick by the rules-- her position before Super Tuesday.
corzine can pay for it by raising new jersey taxes even more!
I don't understand how Rendell can say Clinton won Florida and Michigan when the DNC made it very clear the votes were never going to count and none of the candidates campaigned there. Clinton devotees aside, I don't think Democratic voters want this to stretch into the summer.
Florida is as close to a Third World country that we have in the US today. They did this to themselves. They wanted to move their primary up to make themselves more important (never mind that they're already the biggest swing state in the country), so they went against the party rules and were subsequently dismissed. It bothers me to disenfranchise Florida Democrats who may have had nothing to do with their local party leaders being such jackasses, but what can you do about it now? It should be a done deal.
Once again, the knuckleheads in Florida screw things up and expect the rest of the country to come bail them out. Whey should anyone besides Florida and Michigan taxpayers pay for a second primary?
I'm by no means a FL apologist, but the decision to move the primary forward was executed by the state's republican controlled state gov't. Seems to have been a good move for them as it has now placed the democrats a hard position. BTW, the republicans only penalized the state by losing 1/2 of their delegates -- again a smart move since they would never be in the same position of disenfranchising an entire battleground state.
What's the point when super delegates will ultimately decide who the nominee will be? They're wasting their time. Use that money for something better.
the decision to move the primary forward was executed by the state's republican controlled state gov't. Seems to have been a good move for them as it has now placed the democrats a hard position.
All part of the vast Republican conspiracy designed to force Hillary to fight to change the rules she agreed to long ago so that she can count the delegates she might otherwise be deprived of. Makes sense. Hillary isn't causing this, it's the Republicans.
Whey should anyone besides Florida and Michigan taxpayers pay for a second primary?
I would presume the counter-argument would be "why should Florida's non-Democratic tax-payers have to pay for a Democratic primary."
I'm by no means a FL apologist, but the decision to move the primary forward was executed by the state's republican controlled state gov't. Seems to have been a good move for them as it has now placed the democrats a hard position.
You're insane if you think the Republicans want to take delegates away from Hillary Clinton. The Republicans are falling over themselves to prop her up as the Democratic candidate... because she can not win.
I saw the talk shows yesterday as well and blaming the Republicans in Florida for this is lunacy. Either the Democrats in the Florida legislature should have gotten off their asses and fought back or the national Democratic Party should have changed their rules and told all the candidates to compete in the primary on the given date. Instead we get another clusterfuck that the Democrats won't take any responsibility for. Whining on national TV that you were powerless to stop it doesn't make me too confident that Democrats controlling the White House and Congress is going to make much difference.
Reminder: We didn't care about Florida or Michigan at primary time because we didn't expect such a close race at this time. All this Monday morning quarterbacking is only because we don't have clear winner.
Reminder: We didn't care about Florida or Michigan at primary time because we didn't expect such a close race at this time. All this Monday morning quarterbacking is only because we don't have clear winner.
"Either the Democrats in the Florida legislature should have gotten off their asses and fought back or the national Democratic Party should have changed their rules and told all the candidates to compete in the primary on the given date."
Neither of these is realistic, as the Florida leg is GOP controlled, and the DNC clearly stated before these primaries were moved that there would be consequences.
I agree that Florida Dems were caught in the middle, but I don't think there was any other option. The DNC couldn't have capitulated only on Florida, as other states would then want to move their primaries up without penalty. The thing is, everyone was assuming that it would be a standard primary season where the nominee is decided in February and collects all the delegates thereafter, so that these two states ultimately wouldn't matter.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.
Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He is set to make an announcement about 2:15 this afternoon at his Manhattan office.
Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.
C'MON GOTHAMIST, WHERE ARE YOU ON THIS?!