Florida Dems defy Dean on primary date

Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), is trapped in a high-stakes game of chicken with party leaders in Florida.

They warned him yesterday not to “disenfranchise” state voters and risk being blamed for a debacle on the scale of the 2000 recount.

{mosads}The warning comes amid alarm over a decision Sunday by state Democratic leaders to embrace Jan. 29 as the primary date.
They are defying DNC headquarters and daring it to follow through on its threat to disqualify electors selected in the primary and punish candidates who campaign there.

But the DNC is not backing down. The committee bought time with a statement late yesterday saying, “The DNC will enforce the rules as passed by its 447 members in Aug. 2006. Until the Florida State Democratic Party formally submits its plan and we’ve had the opportunity to review that submission, we will not speculate further.”

Dean does not, in any case, have the power to waive party rules, a DNC spokeswoman said. The entire committee would have to vote again to do that.

Florida’s decision throws the whole primary season into disarray. New Hampshire law requires the Granite State to conduct the first primary in the nation, and Florida’s move could have a domino effect pushing contests back into late this year.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said yesterday that if the party follows through on its threats, it would effectively throw Florida, which is crucial in electoral terms, to the Republicans.

The senators warned Dean to avoid the “perception” that the national party is silencing Florida voters by enforcing the Democrats’ strict proscriptions against states that jump ahead.

As things stand, any Democratic candidate who campaigns in Florida, will have his or her delegates divided among candidates who refrain from venturing into the forbidden territory.

Thus the candidates are forced to choose whether they must ignore a motherlode of delegates that could win them the presidential nomination.

“I don’t even want to contemplate those sanctions,” Nelson said.

They are more severe than the Republican National Committee’s rules, which only take away half of the state’s delegates.
Nelson said he spoke with Dean last week and, “he was pretty hard over about not liking this whatsoever.”

Nelson’s suggests Dean resolve the problem by moving Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina up by one week.

New Hampshire requires its contest to be held seven days before a “similar” contest, and Secretary of State Bill Gardner said Florida’s move does not affect his duty to follow state law.

Carol Fowler, chairwoman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said she won’t move that state’s primary, scheduled for Feb. 2, unless the national committee allows her.

“I’m going to do what the DNC tells me to,” Fowler said. “I’m not willing to violate the rules. The penalties are too stiff.”
Those penalties create a serious dilemma for the candidates.

A campaign manager for one of the Democratic candidates told The Hill that only a candidate who is coasting to the nomination could afford to concede the Sunshine State’s delegates to other, apparently vanquished candidates.

“If you think you’re in a dogfight, delegates matter,” the official said. “You don’t make that determination until after Iowa.”

If a candidate is winning the media battle, essentially claiming the nomination as a result of momentum much like Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) did in 2004, then that candidate can head to Florida without fear. The nominee would then, of course, force the party to accept Florida delegates at the nominating convention, the official said.

DNC officials and the Florida state party had been studying a number of options to avoid setting up this showdown, including making the primary a “beauty contest” and holding a caucus after the official date.

But party leaders and members said they would see such a significant drop-off in turnout with the caucus model, that the party as a whole would suffer.

Municipal elections and a proposed constitutional amendment capping property taxes – an enormous issue for Florida voters – are on the Jan. 29 ballot.

Nelson and state party Chairwoman Karen Thurman told reporters Monday that rendering the primary meaningless, the party would essentially be suppressing the votes of anyone who came out on primary day.

“This thing could be a total mess unless we find a way out of this, a compromise,” Nelson said.

He added that Dean “clearly… cannot hold the Florida Democratic Party responsible for this,” saying that the party is only following the law as passed by a Republican-held legislature and signed by a Republican governor.

But Gardner pointed out that the measure passed the House unanimously, and saw little to no Democratic opposition in the Senate.

Nelson and Thurman said they had not received any commitments from any of the candidates to campaign in the state, but they did say it would be unwise to wait, because it would give Republicans an advantage in the general election.

An official with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign said the senator would campaign and compete in every primary, but was hopeful the state party and national committee will find common ground.

The official hastened to add that the candidates don’t set the schedule.

Other campaigns seemed to be struggling with how to deal with the state party’s weekend decision to embrace the early primary.