Front Page > World > Article Title/Fixture Title

Front Page > Commentary

Email | Print | Subscribe

Click-2-Listen

advertisement

Related Stories

Clinton detours for do-over plea

Disenfranchising two primary states

By Steve Chapman
March 15, 2008

The vote was once denied to women. It was denied to blacks. It was denied to those without land. And today, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm tell us, it is being denied to their people.

The Democratic and Republican parties are depriving them of delegates to the nominating conventions because they held their primaries too early, and the governors are horrified at this treatment. "The right to vote is at the very foundation of our democracy," they said in a statement. "It is intolerable that the national political parties have denied the citizens of Michigan and Florida their votes and voices at their respective national conventions." Hear that sound? It's a tiny sad song, being played on the world's smallest violin.

Let's review what happened here. Back in 2006, the Democratic National Committee approved rules for when states could hold their primaries. They decreed no states except Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina could vote before Feb. 5 — and that any state jumping the gun would lose its convention delegates. (The Republican National Committee canceled just half their delegates.) According to the DNC, the members from Florida and Michigan supported that policy.

But then some people in those states, sick of seeing Iowa and New Hampshire hog all the attention, had a better idea. So the legislatures and governors decided to flout the approved schedule and hold their primaries in January. They figured they were so big and important the presidential candidates would show up to campaign anyway — and that the party would ultimately cave in and seat their delegates.

Saulius Anuzis, head of the Michigan Republican Party, summed up the prevailing sentiment among politicians on both sides of the aisle: "We understand that this violates the rules of both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee. We don't care."

But come 2008, the defiant ones got a surprise: Their ploy was a bust. Except for Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic candidates all refused to campaign in either state. If that's not bad enough, the Democratic Party has refused to budge.

Says DNC Chairman Howard Dean, "You can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Florida and Michigan voted for a set of rules and then decided that unlike the other 48 states, they would do something different. That's not fair, and it doesn't respect either the Clinton campaign, the Obama campaign, or the other 48 states."

But Mr. Crist and Mr. Granholm are not alone in protesting. Hillary Clinton feels their pain. As a press spokesman said last week, "The people of Florida and Michigan have already voted, and their voices ought to be heard. That's why Sen. Clinton is urging her delegates to vote to seat both delegations at the convention."

Click-2-Listen

Front Page > Commentary