Florida, Michigan fight DNC over delegates

The Democratic Party took another blow yesterday, when the Florida Democratic Party announced… The Democratic Party took another blow yesterday, when the Florida Democratic Party announced that it will not be holding a second primary.

The repercussions of this decision and the continuing debate over whether or not to reconduct the Michigan state primary are just the latest in a long series of conflicts that have polarized the party from within, and no doubt left Sen. John McCain’s jowls quivering with excitement.

Here’s a recap: Last fall, Florida and Michigan announced that they would be moving their primaries quite a bit ahead of schedule.

In response, the DNC cautioned state leaders that if they did so, the states would be stripped of their delegates. Long story short, Florida and Michigan told DNC chair Howard Dean where he could put his rule book and went ahead as planned.

Recently, however, politicians from both states – the same ones that made the unwise decision to defy party rules in the first place – cried foul, arguing that the citizens from their states were disenfranchised and that their delegates should be counted at the Democratic National Convention in August.

The decision to disallow Michigan’s and Florida’s votes makes sense ethically. Technically they violated party rules, and they were well aware of the consequences when they did so.

One might argue, if the Democrats can’t even enforce their own party rules, how could they be expected to run a country?

Yet despite all the dirty political backlash that might come out of all this, I think the fairest thing – and the smartest thing for the party – is to compromise on a revote and distribute the delegates in way that works for both sides, possibly taking a hint from the Republicans and cutting the total in half as punishment for disobeying party rules. To use the original primary votes would be unfair.

Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were told not to campaign in either state and Obama’s name wasn’t even on the Michigan ballot.

Unfortunately for Florida, this is no longer an option.

It’s now in the hands of the DNC to decide whether or not to seat Florida’s delegates in accordance with the state’s original primary, and frankly, to deny these votes would be a terrible, terrible mistake.

For one, whether it’s a punishment or not, disallowing votes is disenfranchisement, and disenfranchisement is inherently undemocratic.

After all, it wasn’t the everyday citizens of Florida and Michigan who bumped the states’ primaries ahead of schedule, it was the overzealous politicians, and I don’t think that the general population should be punished for bad leadership.

More pressing are the possible consequences of letting this disenfranchisement remain. Michigan and Florida voters – two very important states in the general election – aren’t going to be happy if they don’t get a voice in who’s running for the main ticket.

Steve Geller, state Senate minority leader for Florida and winner of the politician who looks most like his state fruit award, conducted a poll of Florida Democratic voters and warned the DNC that, according to his results, if Florida does not have its votes counted in the decision of the Democratic nominee, only 63 percent will still vote with the Democrats in the general election.

Seriously, is there a conspiracy within the Democratic Party to throw this election? To make matters worse, Clinton and Obama are fighting over it too, spreading even more discord among voters.

It’s not shocking that Clinton, who won both the Michigan and Florida primaries, thinks that the delegates should be distributed based on the original primary results.

The additional delegates would effectively narrow the gap between her and Obama, breathing new life and hope into her campaign.

Obama would prefer that the delegates not be counted at all, though as a second option, would favor reconducting the Michigan primary as a caucus, the format he has been most successful at so far throughout the campaign.

With a possible Michigan revote still up in the air, Howard Dean is just concerned about paying for the whole thing, and has announced that the state would have to fund its own revote because, “we can’t afford to do that. That’s not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race.”

Except it is the Democrats’ problem. The extra $15 to 20 million they would save for the general election is not going to be enough to buy back the snubbed Michigan or Florida votes.

Mail-in your vote on whether or not Florida and Michigan delegates should be counted to Molly at mog4@pitt.edu.