The Florida and Michigan Democratic Delegate Fiasco: BuzzFlash Has a Solution

!st off The FL Democratic Party Did NOT vote to move up the Fl primary. The Republican controlled Fl Legislators did. The FDP begged the DNC not to punish FL Democrats for something they had no control over. But for some deranged reason Howard Dean thought punishing the Democrats would send a message to the Republicans. I do not understand the logic of disenfranchising their own party members.

2nd Obama had campaingned in FL up until August of 2007 and he vowed to support the Democrats of FL no matter what was decided by the DNC. Well that is one vow he has made and backed away from. I guess since he didnt win he doenst want FL to count now. Also Obama was the ONLY Democrat that had an AD running in FL. SO to say he didnt campaign in FL is a false statement.

3rd FL had almost 2 million Democrat voters show up and vote at the polls. How many states can say they had such a huge turn out? Hillary got more votes than had been cast in the 2004 primary. Obama got more votes than Kerry who had won the primary in FL. With 210 Delegates at stake it seems silly that the DNC is willing to throw that away.

4th If the Nominee for the Democrats is suppose to represent the will of the PPL then how can almost 3 million (including MI) not be taken into account?

5th If the DNC doesnt want the FL and MI votes/Delegates now does that mean they dont want our votes in Nov? FL is a state that the DNC loves to do fundraisers in. I guess that slipped their minds when Howard Dean made such a dumb move. FL Democrats lost their voice when Jeb Bush Hijacked the 2000 election. Now to think that their own party has done the same thing to them is very sad and unfair.

6th The only solution the DNC has come up with is to hold a causcus now even thou we had a primary makes no sense. What would be the logic in the state spending nearly 8 million dollars of Tax payers money to hold another election? That wouldnt be fair to the ppl that voted in the primary or the taxpayers whose votes did count (the Republicans). I am pretty sure that the Republican Gov of FL would not stand for such a waste of money.

So my questions are, why should the Democrats of FL be punished for something they had no control over? Also who would be disenfranchised if the delegates counted?

lol @ www.florida-delegates.com

Check the whois on it-
it was registered on 2/7/08 when Howard Dean told democrats in June of 07 their votes would not count, the primarys were on 1/29/08
And it is run by someone from Arizona, not Florida
They are trying to get the votes to count after the results were in.

Domain Name: FLORIDA-DELEGATES.COM
Created on: 07-Feb-08
Expires on: 07-Feb-09
Last Updated on: 07-Feb-08

Administrative Contact:
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Passage of Florida legislative bill HB 537 has caused 1,684,390 US voters to become disenfranchised. Unless the RNC & DNC policies are changed, this could happen to you some day; regardless of your state or party affiliation. The contents of this website will discuss this bill, what happened; and what you can do to try to reverse this situation and prevent it from recurring. Please help us reinstate the voting rights of Florida Democrats. How you can help:

Visit the website
http://florida-delegates.com

Read the Position Summary Section
http://florida-delegates.com/pages/our-position.php

Visit the What To Do Page and follow our action suggestions
http://florida-delegates.com/pages/your-help/what-to-do.php

Pass this information on to others.

If you have already signed a petition that combines the Michigan and Florida reinstatement effort, please sign this petition also. There are different arguments for each state and I believe they need to be argued independently.

Please keep these facts in mind as you read the contents of this website:
* The Florida Democratic primary election ballot had all democratic candidates listed.
* Florida Dems have been disenfranchised, through no fault of their own
* HB537 was written by a Florida Republican to change Florida's primary date.
* A state legislature has interfered with it's constituents National voting rights.
* The Florida Democratic Party did NOT change this date, the legislature did.
* The Florida legislature has an overwhelming Republican majority.
* The House of Representatives in Florida have 41 Democrats; 71 Republicans.
* The Senate in Florida have 14 Democrats; 26 Republicans
* The state of Florida has a Republican Governor.
* The citizens of the state of Florida did NOT vote on this date change.
* HB537 was passed in May 2007 & legislatively changed the Florida primary date.
* This date was, and still is, unalterable by the Florida Democrats.

I was just visiting family in Florida. There's a lot of resentment toward the Democratic leadership about the fact that people there lost the right to have a meaningful vote in the primary through no fault of their own. What a stupid thing for the DNC to do. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Of course, I'm not too thrilled that, living in Pennsylvania, my vote usually doesn't count for anything either. We do, indeed, need a new system.

I think your Idea is terrible, if there was a representation of the rest of the primaries, then they would be representing the rest of the primaries and not Florida. On top of that, given such sharing, have zero effect on the outcome.

I have already gotten push polls denigrating Democrats for this and pushing Republicans. There is no help for the mess now and resentment is very high.

Here is a much better Idea. Build a Democratic party in Florida, and every other state and have them run in an election stating their positions etc. as actual favorite sons, rather than inside players getting the "Super delegate" positions. Then let those folks choose and actual nominee in the old fashioned process, but on the internet with open real time commenting.

Transparency will keep it from the "Smoke filled room" scenario, and local campaigning by delegates will build a more robust local party. Keeping it local would also complicate the money game so buying a candidate would be much harder

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If the Gang Of Pirates think that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat, only a fool would think it bipartisan to accommodate them by acting the part.

Let the people decide. Let everyone vote - and let each vote be counted in public - and let each vote count.

But the powers that be would not be happy with this solution, because someone that represents the majority might have a positive impact on the middle class and a negative impact on big business.

The Los Angles Times reported, back in May of last year:...Republicans in the Florida Legislature — supported by many Democrats — pushed through a measure setting Jan. 29 as the date for their state's presidential primary. Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, is expected to sign the bill.

Now, just which faction of the Democratic Party would side with Florida's GOP to deliberately break DNC rules governing primaries and caucuses?

It was a Democrat, State Senator Jeremy Ring of Broward County, who actually wrote the legislation. I have no evidence one way or another indicated state senator Ring is a member of the Clintonista DLC but, if you're a Democrat, and an elected official no less, then knowing the DNC primary and caucus rules and bylaws should come easily.

As an aside, no one should miss the irony of an unopposed Clinton only garnering 55% of the Michigan primary vote.

Splitting the delegates in this manner is akin to giving one candidate six delegates and each of the other candidates a half-dozen... it doesn't mean anything.

The DNC has unfairly compromised the democratic process by stripping Florida and Michigan of its delegates and thereby stripping these states of its ability to have its voice heard.

In 1972 Florida was the second state to hold its primary/caucus. History be damned! Upon hearing that the Republican controlled Florida State House would move their primary date forward, the DNC threatened to take away 1/2 of Florida's delegates and all of their super delegates, a significant punishment that the RNC ultimately imposed. Howard Dean and the rest of the DNC braintrust over-reacted and took their ball and left, meaning no delegates whatsoever for Florida Democrats. Why has the DNC become so beholden to these little states at the expense of large, diverse states like Florida? Florida's republicans have been laughing at the plight of the democrats since the rash over-reaction by the DNC. Florida is damned important in November! I hope the party hasn't alienated party regulars and typical volunteers. The party needs them leading up to November (not to mention donor money from all the wealthy supporters in the Sunshine State).

See article on the process following the vote in Florida here: http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070504/NEWS/705040509

I agree with several points made, especially the solution of an instant runoff. What is going on here is insane. Time for a thinking peoples' revolution!

Honestly, the primary process, I think, is undemocratic because it institutionalizes the two-party system. There's nothing in the Constitution about primaries, or about the Democratic and Republican parties.

I don't really care if the Democratic party wants to pick its candidates behind closed doors - they're free to do as they wish, in my opinion. If I don't like their candidate, I should vote for another party's nominee.

And to further along this process, we need instant runoff voting. This whole process is just an enormous waste of time and money.

This solution is not bad for this time around but something needs to change at the core of this process. I'm not smart enough to know what that change should be - But I recognize that it MUST change. The DNC leadership and the States both need to stop screwing around. This country will not survive, as a Democracy, with ANY further Conservative control of anything. And you're making it easier for them in a year when Conservatives should go down in flames.

I live in Illinois and I resent having Iowa and NH dictate my choices for the Primaries. I support Edwards but recognize that it's not good for Democracy when three solid candidates with much to contribute drop out after one Primary and one caucus in relatively minor states. IA and NH are not a representative demographic of the rest of the country. The National Parties like it this way apparently because they can CONTROL the process more easily. It Stinks. The current process assures that money trumps Democracy. This has to stop.

The longer term solutions need to include:
- Instant run off elections
- 100% Public Funding of elections
- Direct elections - kill or circumvent the Electoral College
- Paper ballots and Public counting of the vote
- Debates returned to the control of the League of Women Voters

Good luck if you get anyone at Democratic national to listen to you. They are as deaf as george bush when it comes to listening to "We the People".

I read someplace a few days ago that no democracy has ever lasted more than 200 years & we are past that mark. I get the feeling we are doomed. 47 states have not voted yet and already they are telling us that we will have to select from their chosen ones. Does it even matter that Florida and Michigan will not be allowed delegates?

There should be some way for us to have a national primary day or week and get this mess over with.