Florida’s Democrats Can’t Organize Re-Vote

Florida made itself the laughing stock of the democratic world in the 2000 presidential election when it turned out the state’s officials couldn’t design a comprehensible ballot and couldn’t count votes. This year, they failed to burnish that image by managing to get their entire delegation to the Democratic National Convention unseated because they couldn’t follow party rules. Worse, given the chance to hold another primary over the next two months, they couldn’t figure out how to get that done.

Florida moved it primary in May 2007, setting the date as January 29, 2008. The Democratic Party rules said any vote prior February 5, 2008 (with a few exceptions for caucus states and small states) wouldn’t be recognized. At the end of August, the Democratic National Committee voted to strip Florida of all its delegates and gave the state 30 days to change things. It didn’t.

Florida’s Democrats are now arguing that they shouldn’t be punished because the Republicans control the state legislature and the governor’s mansion. This journal accepted that argument for a time, but after further research, it becomes clear that Florida’s Democrats, while in the minority, were complicit in the decision to move the date to January 29. In the State Senate, the vote on April 27, 2007 was 37 in favor of the move with only 2 against. On May 3, 2007, the State House of Representatives voted unanimously (118-0) to make the move to January 29, 2008.

Because the Democratic Party’s rules were quite clear, the candidates didn’t campaign in the state (unless one wants to count a national media buy from the Obama camp that had some ads in Florida and a fundraising/election night rally by the Clinton people). The vote was largely, therefore, an uninformed beauty contest. A new round of balloting would be better, and under party rules, it needs to happen by June 10, 2008.

However, Florida’s Democrats couldn’t find the money and agree on a format, and the state government made a fuss about confirming signatures. So, on Monday, the Democratic Party in Florida decided not to revote, hoping the DNC will relent and seat its delegation. They are undeserving of any sympathy, and the DNC should only seat the delegation if it can extract something worthwhile in return. Or maybe, The DNC should just seat the two state senators who voted against the move.

Florida can’t organize an election with almost three months’ notice while most parliamentary democracies, due to “snap elections” must be able to put one together in 3 weeks - -and they do. Perhaps, it’s all the sunshine in the Sunshine State.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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