It’s decision day for Democrats
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Bleary-eyed Democrats failed to reach consensus early Saturday on how to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations, setting up a potentially explosive hearing later in the morning.
Members of the Democratic National Committee’s rules and bylaws panel convened for more than five hours behind closed doors Friday evening. The meeting ended at 1:30 a.m. ET Saturday — eight hours before the committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the matter.
Michigan and Florida held their primaries earlier than party rules allow, and the party penalized them by excluding them from representation at the August nominating convention.
Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, locked in a tight race in which every delegate is crucial, disagree over how best to handle the situation. Watch what all the fuss is about
It was a full discussion, said Harold Ickes, a DNC rules committee member from the District of Columbia who supports Clinton. I think there was some agreement on some issues and still some disagreements on others.
Both candidates have said they want the Florida and Michigan delegates to attend the convention, but Clinton’s campaign is calling for the results of the primaries to be honored and the delegates awarded based on the results.
This approach would help her chip away at Obama’s lead in pledged delegates because Clinton handily won both states and would be awarded a greater share of the delegates.
Obama’s campaign disagrees, saying he followed the rules, took his name off of the Michigan ballot and did not campaign in either state.
Right now, with no Michigan or Florida delegates included, Obama leads Clinton by 202 delegates. He needs 42 more to clinch the nomination.
Right now what we have to do is to figure our way through all of this, and I believe we will, said Allan Katz, a DNC rules member from Florida who supports Obama. And I believe we will come up with something [Saturday]. There will probably be a little sort of tussling but we are Democrats. Follow a timeline of the dispute
The rules committee will address two main issues at the hearing Saturday morning: how many delegates each state is allowed and how those delegates will be allocated between the two candidates. Watch who will really decide the nomination
How do you recognize the people who didn’t vote and how do you recognize the people that did vote and how do we at the same time maintain the integrity of the process? said Martha Fuller Clark, a DNC Rules Committee member from New Hampshire and Obama supporter. And there are no easy answers.
James Roosevelt, Jr., the DNC Rules committee co-chair from Massachusetts, described the meeting as spirited because people on this committee have a strong feeling about the rules and about the importance of them. But he added, It was not unpleasant or heated.
Roosevelt also predicted a resolution will be reached, but said there would be dissenting votes.
I can’t predict that it will be unanimous, he said. I do think that it will be unifying for the party.
In a letter addressed to the co-chairs of the rules committee, Clinton lawyer Lyn Utrecht said Friday the panel is compelled to seat both delegations from Florida and Michigan fully and not award Obama any delegates from Michigan.
It is a bedrock principle of our party that every vote must be counted, and thereby every elected delegate should be seated, Utrecht wrote.
The letter said party rules do not allow arbitrary reallocation of uncommitted delegates to a candidate or arbitrary reallocation of delegates from one candidate to another. Read the full letter (pdf)
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told The Associated Press that receiving no pledged delegates from Michigan is not acceptable and I don’t think is a position that people find terribly reasonable.
Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod said his campaign wants a resolution that allows Florida and Michigan to come to the convention, participate in the convention and do it within the rules of the party.
But Axelrod took issue with the Clinton campaign’s approach to the issue.
Everybody agreed that these contests would not be valid, he said, adding that Clinton reconsidered when the race began to turn and her situation changed.
