Fla. lawmakers ask to see DNC’s secret delegate plan

Florida Democrats Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Alcee Hastings have asked the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to make public its internal recommendations on how to handle appeals Florida and Michigan have made to have their delegates seated at the national convention.

In an April 3 letter to the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, the two lawmakers criticized the DNC for keeping recommendations on the appeals by its staff confidential. The letter also said the lawmakers understood the DNC “may choose to adopt the confidential recommendations without a hearing.”

{mosads}“The Democratic Party is an open party,” they wrote, and “it would be inconsistent with the DNC¹s commitment to openness to keep actions on these appeals under a cloak of secrecy.”

Dean, on a conference call with reporters Monday, declined to discuss the letter or the larger issue of Florida and Michigan, both of which were stripped of all their delegates by the DNC for scheduling their presidential primaries before Feb. 5.

However, Stacie Paxton, a DNC spokeswoman, said in a release that “staff had two weeks to make their recommendation to the Rules and Bylaws co-chairs, which they have done.

“The co-chairs are now reviewing the recommendation,” Paxton said, and “when they decide how to proceed, it will be made public.”

Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Nelson, said the letter was not released until Monday in order to give committee members time to reply. Since they have yet to get a reply, McLaughlin said the lawmakers feel they might not get an answer, and the recommendations will remain secret.

What to do with the two states has emerged as a precarious problem for the DNC as its two remaining candidates continue to slug it out for the party’s presidential nomination.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) won both states, but because neither she nor her opponent, front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), campaigned in either state, the legitimacy of those wins has come under fire.

Clinton, trailing in both the popular vote and the pledged-delegate count, has made a sustained push to get the delegates seated sooner rather than later.