It seems the Florida Democratic Party just gets patheticker and patheticker. According to the Politico, state Chair Karen Thurman, in an effort to make the party’s October state convention at least marginally meaningful compared with its totally meaningless January primary, wrote to the four early-primary states to ask them to permit the Dem prez candidates to attend the convention.
See, following the Democratic National Committee’s smack-down of the the Florida Dems for moving the state’s primary to Jan. 29, ahead of the Feb. 5 earliest-allowed date, the four leading Dem candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in the state unless FlaDems fixed the date thingy. The state party leaders are supposed to teleconference next Saturday and come up with a final solution to the mess before the Sept. 29 5 p.m. deadline. Nothing like leaving it to the last possible minute.
In the meantime, Thurman asked the lead states — Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina — to allow the candidates to come to Disney World for the FlaDem convention next month. (Appropriate venue, no?) The answer? No way, not until you folks get together a “compliant” plan to render your primary meaningless. One wonders why Thurman didn’t wait until after the party had figured out what it was going to do before crawling hat in hands to the early states. But then, one wonders often at Thurman’s behavior. For instance, why wait until just hours before the deadline to convene the party leadership to discuss what to do about Jan. 29.
Here’s the hard-assed letter signed by reps of the four states:
The Hon. Karen Thurman September 18th, 2008
Chair, Florida Democratic Party
Dear Congresswoman Thurman,The Florida Democratic Party has requested that candidates who signed the “Four-State Pledge†with Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina attend their Democratic Convention in October. We understand from the Florida Democratic Party that this is an important event for them.
Each candidate signed the pledge and indicated they understood that the intention of the pledge is to bring finality, predictability and common sense to the nominating calendar. The pledge refers to the 2008 Delegate Selection Rules for the Democratic National Committee, including, but not limited to, Rule 20 c 1 b.
These rules hold true for any state infringing on the pre-window. Candidates have signed a pledge to honor the calendar with regard to the pre-window and that applies to all states moving forward.
Our caucus-goers and voters will monitor the candidates and media coverage and will ultimately decide whether the campaigns are keeping their promises.
The four states are busy preparing for their respective calendar events and cannot and should not police the calendar process.
That said, this specific one-time request from Florida will be acceptable, if, and only if, Florida timely submits a Delegate Selection Plan that the Rules and Bylaws Committee Staff of the DNC would recommend for compliance.
This would extend only to an appearance at the state convention itself.
We and our voters understand that, except for this convention, even if Florida submits a compliant plan, DNC rules would still prohibit further campaigning there until after January 29th, 2008.
Sincerely,
Scott Brennan, Jill Derby, Raymond Buckley, Carol Fowler [Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina Democratic chairs, respectively]
The DNC rule referred to in the letter is pretty clear on the subject of candidates campaigning in rogue states:
20 c 1 b. A presidential candidate who campaigns in a state where the state party is in violation of the timing provisions of these rules, or where a primary or caucus is set by a state’s government on a date that violates the timing provisions of these rules, may not receive pledged delegates or delegate votes from that state. Candidates may, however, campaign in such a state after the primary or caucus that violates these rules. “Campaigning†for purposes of this section includes, but is not limited to, purchasing print, internet, or electronic advertising that reaches a significant percentage of the voters in the aforementioned state; hiring campaign workers; opening an office; making public appearances; holding news conferences; coordinating volunteer activities; sending mail, other than fundraising requests that are also sent to potential donors in other states; using paid or volunteer phoners or automated calls to contact voters; sending emails or establishing a website specific to that state; holding events to which Democratic voters are invited; attending events sponsored by state or local Democratic organizations; or paying for campaign materials to be used in such a state. The Rules and Bylaws Committee will determine whether candidate activities are covered by this section.
There is no wiggle room in the rules to allow candidates to campaign — even at the state party convention — in Florida. Period. One wonders what Thurman was thinking when she went begging.
So it looks like the Florida Democrats are going to have a convention with no presidential candidates in attendance. Well, at least it’ll be at Disney World. Maybe Karen and Co. can console themselves with a ride on “It’s a Small World” or a visit to “Country Bear Jamboree” (it’s just like a trip to Tallahassee). Or maybe “Peter Pan’s Flight” would seem more familiar, dealing as it does in fairy dust and fantasy. But they should surely steer clear of “Dumbo the Flying Elephant.”
