27 August 2007
Dear Friend:
On 25 August 2007 three DNC Members from Florida – State Chair Karen Thurman, former State Chair Terrie Brady and former two-term Vice-Chair Jon Ausman – were given the opportunity to present the Florida Democratic Party’s (FDP) delegate selection plan to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC).
Karen Thurman spoke about the efforts by Democratic legislators to prevent the Republicans from moving the primary before the 5 February cutoff date. Jon Ausman spoke of the difference between primaries and caucuses. He noted that primaries have 6,700 voting locations, caucuses only 50 to 150. That 24,000 active military who were Democrats cast absentee ballots in 2004 along with 105,000 civilians. They would not get an opportunity to vote in a caucus. Terrie Brady spoke about the municipal elections scheduled for 29 January and that the property tax referendum was on the same ballot.
National news coverage of Florida’s presentation was covered by C-SPAN. Two national networks provided coverage. The hyperlinks for this coverage are provided below.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3204114nhttp://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3524267The staff of the RBC distributed a document, a copy of which is attached as a .pdf file, which undermined the argument that the relevant elected officials made a good faith effort to stop the presidential preference primary from being moved from March into January in violation of the DNC Rules. This memorandum clearly showed that:
1. Florida Democratic Legislators sponsored the bill to move the primary to January 29th;
2. Florida House Democratic Legislators voted in committee three times for the bill to move the primary to January 29;
3. All but one Florida House Democratic Legislator vote on the floor to move the primary to January 29; and,
4. Florida House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber stated, after receiving a call from DNC Chair asking for help in opposing setting the primary date before February 5, “I don’t represent Howard Dean.”
5. Florida House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber stated, after offering an amendment to move the primary to February 5th, that the only reason he offer it was “to show that there was an attempt to state within the Democratic Party rules.” The amendment failed on a voice vote with no debate being offered.
6. Florida Senate Democratic Legislators voted in committee to move the primary to January;
7. Florida Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller stated on the Senate floor that he was offering an amendment to move the primary to February 5 only because he was threatened by DNC Chair Howard Dean. Sen. Geller than mocked his own amendment which failed on a voice vote without any debate.
After Florida’s presentation, RBC Member Ralph Dawson moved a motion that did the following:
1. Found that the FDP Delegate Selection Plan was in non-compliance;
2. Gave the FDP thirty (30) days to submit to the RBC a Delegate Selection Plan that is in compliance; and,
3. If a plan meeting the timing requirement (the first step of delegate selection occurs on 5 February or afterwards) then Florida will be stripped of all unpledged and pledged delegates.
After debate and discussion, the RBC passed the motion by a vote of 23-1 (City Commissioner Allan Katz of Florida was the only dissenting vote).
This gives the FDP two choices. It can:
1. Ignore the DNC RBC and hope that the Democratic National Convention Credentials Committee will seat its delegates;
2. Submit a delegate selection plan which allows Democrats to either caucus or meet in convention to select delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
Earlier this year I supported a caucus plan to select delegates. The State Executive Committee and Florida’s DNC Members voted to use the primary on 29 January as the first determining step for delegate selection. I argued strongly to support this position before the DNC RBC.
The Democratic National Committee has the right to set a window which divides the four states – Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina – which can select delegates before 5 February from all the other state selection processes.
The Florida Legislature, with strong and active Democratic support, moved the primary before 5 February to 29 January. This was not done by Republicans over protesting Democratic legislators. The Democratic legislators voted in five separate committees and in two floor actions for the bill.
Some have attempted to state that Democrats only voted for the bill because of the requirement to have voting machines with paper ballots. That is not an accurate and true statement.
In fact, Democratic Legislators actively support the 29 January primary in a number of votes before it was merged into the general election bill. This was most unfortunate because by doing so the FDP could no longer argue that we made a “good faith effort” to stop the move by Republicans because in fact it was a bi-partisan move.
A caucus will allow us to have a full delegation. A caucus will mean a Democratic voter in Florida has the same value as a Democratic voter in Iowa or Nevada.
A caucus will allow us to collect tens of thousands of email addresses, yardsign locations and cars to put bumperstickers on.
The DNC has made a generous offer to help offset the cost of the caucuses by offering the FDP $880,000 to help pay for some of the costs. The DNC has not offered a single other state any funds and in the past has never offered any monies to any state.
When elected officials blatantly blame the DNC for enforcing its rules and ignore the complicity of Florida Democratic elected officials in creating this situation they are not serving the Democrats of Florida well. They may get headlines, they may get support, but they are being demagogues rather than leaders.
It is time for leadership. We represent the Democrats of Florida and since our legislative Democratic elected officials have failed us, we need to make sure that their votes, in caucuses, count.
We have 27 days to get the job done. Lets get to work together and come up with a plan which will allow presidential candidates to campaign in Florida and receive delegates.
Lets make sure the presidential candidates know they are going to get delegates so they work to excite our Democratic voters. A caucus is an opportunity to build a viable, active party for November 2008.
What do you think?