In a tersely worded letter sent to the press this week, Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman asserted that the state party has rejected the premise that the state needs to vote again and would not be holding another vote, even if the Democratic National Committee were to step up and foot the bill. It was the final word from state Democrats that they don't think the 210 delegates hanging in limbo are their problem, effectively punting the delegate question back to the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee.
In a tersely worded letter sent to the press this week, Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman asserted that the state party has rejected the premise that the state needs to vote again and would not be holding another vote, even if the Democratic National Committee were to step up and foot the bill. It was the final word from state Democrats that they don't think the 210 delegates hanging in limbo are their problem, effectively punting the delegate question back to the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee.
"[T]he consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again," wrote Thurman. "So we won't."
In the letter, Thurman also expressed exasperation at the way Florida has been treated, and noted that George W. Bush would be in Florida this week raising money for the Republican National Committee. Republicans are already investing their resources in this pivotal state. State and national Democrats, meanwhile, have been preoccupied with resolving the delegate situation. Among state Democrats, there is widespread resentment that the DNC is wrapped up in punishing them for the decision of the Republican-led state legislature rather than supporting the state party. Florida Democrats fear that another vote would waste time and resources, and continued delay on a resolution could imperil the state in the November general election.
"Does '537' ring a bell? It should. It's the number of votes that separated Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in Florida in 2000," wrote Thurman. "It's the number that sent this country and this world in a terrible direction. We can't let 537 -- or the Republicans -- determine our future again."
While much of the coverage of the Florida question has focused on the back-and-forth between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Democrats in the state like Thurman have a host of concerns stemming from the delegate debacle. But other than flat-out rejecting another vote, consensus in the state is not clear on what they'd like to see happen.
Foremost among their shared concerns are the record 1.7 million Democrats that came out to vote in January -- more than quadruple the total the number that voted in the 2004 primary – which most state Democrats feel shouldn't be ignored by the national party. Any attempts to vote again would produce nowhere near that level of turnout, and it would expend financial resources better spent on ensuring this coveted state doesn't go red once again in November. More importantly, the Florida Democrats' firm stance on upholding their January vote forces the DNC to make a decision on how to deal with states that buck the primary scheme -- an issue that's bound to come up again.
Ana Cruz, a Clinton adviser for the state of Florida and the volunteer chair of Florida for Hillary, says that the ongoing debate over the delegates is exceptionally frustrating for Democrats who worked on the 2000 election in the state. Cruz knows those frustrations well, having served as the executive director of the state party and the deputy finance chair for Gore's presidential campaign.
"A lot of us fought so hard in 2000 to win this state. And then for the DNC to turn around and treat us like the red-headed stepchild once again, it's just not fair, and it's just not right," said Cruz.
"People want their vote to be heard, regardless of what the DNC says," Cruz continued. "They've been disenfranchised since 2000, and they're not going to tolerate it."
If the DNC ignores the January vote, many fear it has the appearance of doing just that. For Alison Berke Morano, chair of the Pasco County Democratic Executive Committee, the exceptional turnout in January reinforced her belief that the state party was right to stand by the decision go forward with the primary and reject the DNC's proposal to hold a caucus after Feb. 5. Morano said that state Democrats only had the funds to reach out to 120,000 Democrats of the 4 million in the state to advertise a caucus, significantly limiting participation in this populous, diverse state.
"Talk about disenfranchised! Only 120,000 people would even be told that there's something going on," said Morano. "I can't imagine having to face the Florida voters and tell them that, after everything Florida's gone through."
And in a state where invigorating as many Democratic voters as possible may very well be the determinant of the next president of the United States, party activists like Morano aren't willing to do that, especially if it comes at the cost of the work they've been doing to build the party apparatus. The fact that that the DNC chose to cut all the state's delegates, while the Republican National Committee merely penalized the state by halving their delegates, has prompted some Democrats there to resist the DNC's proposals for a revote even more fiercely, according to Morano.
"Rules are rules ... I understand the motivation behind it," said Morano. "But I think that you step back and you see what's good for the country and what's good for the state and look at the individual situation, and I don't think that's what was done.
"Republicans didn't do that. That's where you give them credit -- they don't turn on themselves. Democrats turn on themselves," continued Morano.
This perceived neglect is also amplified by the DNC's refusal to provide funding support for another vote in the state. Of course both the national and state parties have significant concerns that the expense of putting on either a party-funded caucus or primary would draw from the amount the party could spend on efforts around the general election in November. The price tag on the proposed mail-in vote was estimated at between $10 million and $12 million, and according to state records, the Florida Democratic Party only raised about $5 million last year. Considering how important their state is likely to be once again this year, expending more financial and organizational resources on a revote simply doesn't make sense. For party activists like Morano, who has not backed a particular candidate, it's more important that they can help deliver the presidency to a Democrat, whomever the nominee may be.
Obama supporters in the state clearly have some different concerns when it comes to the question of whether and how to seat the state's delegates. Megan Foster, a volunteer organizer for Obama in Tampa, said she would rather see the delegates not seated than consent to a revote or a plan that all Florida Democrats, regardless of whom they are supporting, don't find fair. She said she would like to see the Florida Democratic Party, state Democratic legislators, the DNC, and the two candidates sit down and negotiate a compromise.
If her candidate is on board with the compromise, whether that involves halving the delegates and allotting them according to the January vote or simply splitting them evenly between the candidates, two of the possible resolutions that have been floated, Foster says she'll support it. Frank Sanchez, finance chair for Tampa Bay for Obama and member of Obama's national finance committee, said he would like to see the DNC work out a formula for seating the delegates that takes into account that the lack of an official campaign in the state likely hurt Obama's performance in January.
"Every place that he has campaigned he's come back from behind and either won or narrowed the gap," said Sanchez. "To accept the Jan. 29 results lock, stock and barrel just is not fair. A solution that takes into account those results and other factors is what I would like to see."
Like most Democrats in the state, Sanchez said he did not see the proposals for another vote as sufficient. He also expressed frustration with both the state and national party for not being able to hash out an amenable solution well before it got to this point.
For some state Democrats, part of the resistance to revoting in order to receive the blessing of the national committee is also about shaking up the Democratic National Convention so problems like these are resolved. Morano said she would like to see Florida prompt a restructuring of party rules so that those that challenge the system don't have to be punished, and states like Florida -- big, diverse, and pivotal in the general election – get a voice on the level of Iowa and New Hampshire. Of course Florida and Michigan are the only two states to violate the party rules thus far, but the question is likely to present itself again.
"What I want to do is create change when we get there," said Morano. "To me it's not even an issue of sitting. It's an issue of what do we do once we get there to tell our story and show that something has to be done about this primary system."
Now that Florida has soundly rejected another vote, Morano and other state Democrats might get what they want. It will likely be a frustrating task for the Rules & Bylaws Committee to decide how to proceed with the state's delegates, but voting again would be an expensive, calamitous affair, and it would not create a long-term resolution of these questions. Of course, if Clinton and Obama go down to the wire and the Florida and Michigan delegates become the determinants of the entire primary, the DNC will have much larger concerns. A revote would make the job of the DNC less complicated, but the Florida Democrats have committed themselves to standing by their January vote. The question is now, what will the DNC do to stand by them and develop a delegate solution that maintains the legitimacy of the nomination?
