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Fed. Judge Rules for DNC Over Florida Delegates

By Jeralyn, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 03:41:29 PM EST
Tags: DNC, convention, 2008 (all tags)
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A federal judge has ruled the DNC can exclude Florida delegates from the convention as a penalty for moving up their primary date.

[U.S. District Court] Judge Robert Hinkle said that political parties have a First Amendment right to set their own rules and enforce them. The national party did that, which means that Florida will not have a say in picking the Democratic nominee.

Florida's set its primary for January 29 even though the rules don't allow them before February 5, so as to maintain the importance of the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. Two other states, Nevada and South Carolina, are also allowed early primaries "to add geographic and racial and ethnic diversity."

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    Fed. Judge Rules for DNC Over Florida Delegates | 10 comments (10 topical)

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    Lost confidence? (none / 0) (#1)
    by TruthHurtzIndeed on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 03:46:51 PM EST
    Not a whole lot of confidence in Florida these days for the DNC? Is it worth it in the long run alienating the state with just the end result in mind?

    An imagination (none / 0) (#3)
    by manys on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 04:48:43 PM EST
    It sure is nice to see a hard line drawn in the sand. Florida played with fire, now they'll be irrelevant. Besides, Florida is only useful for gaming Republicans into office in a close race, and none of the presidential candidates are going to be strong enough to force a win by fractional percentage points.

    Parent
    No, the GOP dominated legislature gave us the (none / 0) (#9)
    by Molly Bloom on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 06:55:12 PM EST
    early primary. Remains to be seen if the GOP follows suit with its Florida delegation.

    Parent
    It does seem (none / 0) (#2)
    by Deconstructionist on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 04:11:34 PM EST
     to be a questionable position by the DNC. Why even risk alienating the party structure in a astate that if I recall correctly has at some point in history been  relatively important to the outcome of a general election.

       Perhaps after establishig the legal point that it can exclude if it wants,  the national committeee will magnanimously refrain from doing so.

    Undoubtedly (none / 0) (#4)
    by jimakaPPJ on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 05:07:32 PM EST
    Of course this was the state Demo party that designed ballots too complex for their Senior base to figure out.

    ;-)

    Parent

    LOL n/t (none / 0) (#5)
    by dutchfox on Wed Dec 05, 2007 at 05:14:38 PM EST


    Parent
    Divide the electoral college as follows (