Today is the day of the Democratic RBC. What will happen? Read it here at PoliGazette.
Today is the day of the Democratic RBC. Democratic leaders will decide about the future of their party (and, which is the same in quite some ways, the delegates to the convention). At PoliGazette we will try to report about the meeting as much as we can. If you’ve got nothing else to do yourself, you can also watch it live at CNN.
Before covering the meeting, let me start by pointing out that the meeting took place behind closed doors first. The leaders of the Democratic Party hoped that a compromise would be reached without spectators, but that didn’t quite work out so well.
The Politico‘s Ben Smith is live-blogging the event. Here is what happened earlier today:
From Howard Dean’s speech:
“We are going to nominate eithe rthe first woman or the frist African-American to our party,” he says.
He thanks all the candidates, “especially Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama.”
“These two candidates have helped transform our party”, he continues. “And have shown that Democrats can win everywhere.”
“When we decided on a 50-state strategy I’m not sure we decided that all 50-states would have a hard-fought primary,” he says.
He then delivers a long anecdote about a conversation with Al Gore he had in 2004 when he had dropped out of the presidential race and was angry at the party.
“Finally, Al said to me, you know its not about you its about your country,” Dean says. at the time, no one could have said that to me – not even my wife – except for Al Gore.”
“This is not about our candidates,” he says. “This is about our country.”
Also: a deal seems to be in the making.
Florida DNC Member Jon Ausman — making his appeal and kicking off the actual hearing — concedes that Florida’s early primary committed a “timing violation,” and concedes the 50% penalty was appropriate.
It looks like most of his appeal will hinge on a technical argument over whether or not the RBC could penalize the superdelegates at all.
It’s unlikely he will get his way: The RBC is unlikely to give pledged delegates half-votes and superdelegates full votes.
Senator Ben Nelson (speaking for Florida), meanwhile, criticized the national and local media. They “kept on telling Florida that their votes will not count,” he said. “These voters violated no rule, they committed no crime, they did not move the election date forward – the Republican legislature did that,” he says. “They do not deserve to be punished.”
The Democrats are, obviously, in a difficult position. Many feel that they can’t ignore the will of the voters but, on the other hand, they also fear that if they give Michigan and Florida full votes, other states will – from now onwards – ignore deadlines and rules determined by the DNC as well.
Watching the debate quickly makes it clear that those who believe that the votes should be counted are quite emotional about it. This isn’t a matter of politics for many of them, although it most certainly is (at least partially) for Hillary Clinton, it’s a matter of principles. Having said that, their seems to be quite a divide between Clinton supporters and Obama supporters. Clinton supporters are obviously more passionate about it, whereas Obama supporters seem to either oppose it or appear to be cold about it.
Florida Senator Arthenia L. Joyner, meanwhile, passionately called for, not a compromise, but for all votes to be counted. She received just about a standing ovation when she said that the right to have your vote heard is one of the most important principles of America, and of the Democratic Party.
The RBC then asked whether that meant she wanted all votes to be counted or whether she would agree to cutting the delegates of Florida by 50%. Her answer? “I want it all.”
Floridian politician Wexler, who is also an Obama supporter (and, as such, represents the Obama campaign), is up now.
As it is, Obama has little to nothing to lose with restoring the delegates. When the race for the delegates was still undecided, the Obama campaign opposed restoring the delegates, but now they have already won the race for delegates, they support Florida to the degree that 50% of the delegates should be counted.
Since restoring the delegates with 50% doesn’t the reflect the outcome (either in delegates or popular vote wise), Obama’s campaign can try to appear magnanimous. The representative of the Obama campaign said that if both candidates would have been allowed to campaign in Florida, the outcome would have been different (highly questionable; he’s not popular in Florida) and that both candidates knew, well before the elections took place in Florida, that the delegates would be cut and agreed to this (true).
“We must find a way, as Democrats… to resolve this situation” so that Florida can participate “in this historical” nomination process, he said.
“As the designated representative of the Obama campaign I ask” the DNC to restore the delegates of Florida according to the proposition (50%). He basically first explained why they would oppose 100%, and then tried to present his candidate and himself as kind by saying that they support the proposal.
Personally I find it strange that he doesn’t call for 100%. They don’t have much to lose.
More later.
A compromise appears to be in the works… not only with regards to Florida, but also to Michigan:
Sources with knowledge of the RBC’s inner dealings say a compromise is being crafted in which all of the candidates who took their names off of the state’s ballot would voluntarily agree that the now-uncommitted delegates would go to Obama, after which the state’s entire delegation would be seated.
The proposal, which two sources confirm has been discussed, would stand the greatest chance of passing: it would pacify Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, who has demanded that his state’s non-sanctioned January primary be fully honored; and it would circumvent the Clinton campaign’s insistence that party rules prevent simply assigning all of Michigan’s uncommitted delegates to Obama.
[Update from Claudia:] Michigan discussions now. The representatives of Michigan state, the Obama campaign and the Clinton campaign are making arguments. Sifting through the appeals to emotion, the complaining and the theater the arguments are basically as follows:
Michigan state: Michigan got cheated. They acted with the best of intentions and basically they got turned on. It’s not their fault. Michigan should get full seating and full votes. The allocations of votes is secondary.
Obama campaign: The Michigan vote was flawed. All the candidates save Clinton took their names off the ballot out of respect for the rules, and even Clinton said “it wouldn’t count”. Lots of Obama supporters stayed home, voted for Clinton as a second choice or voted in the Republican primary. There is no real way to determine what the real vote would have been in a full primary. They support seating the delegation but since allocation is impossible to determine due to the flawed nature of the primary, the delegation should be split 50/50.
Clinton campaign: The other candidates didn’t have to take their names off. Lots of people voted, and their votes should count. Lots of ominous threatening warning about McCain winning unless Michigan gets to count. The primary accurately reflects the will of the voters in Michigan (!!). Delegates fully should be seated and split 73 for Clinton and 55 uncommitted, with none guaranteed to Obama.
[UPDATE FROM MVDG]
In watching the debate at the DNC rules committee I am starting to wonder if the Obama campaign is making something of a tactical mistake of being so aggressive in pursuing its position regarding Michigan and Florida.
To begin with, I think they could have chosen a better spokesman from Florida. Perhaps it is just me but Congressman Wexler comes off as quite arrogant and seemingly unable to conceive that any fair minded person could disagree with him…
Further, I’m not sure that they need to fight so hard to ‘win’ this fight considering where the math is.
I agree with that sentiment. The Obama campaign has put itself, unnecessarily, in a difficult position. They tried to appear magnanimous, but they should have abandoned the 50% road when people began to see through it (which was probably after 1 hour or so).
[UPDATE-Claudia]: RESULTS
Florida: After a failed vote to try to get the full delegation seated at full strength, a unanimous vote for the compromise: All pledged delegates are seated with one half vote. The allocation is as follows: Clinton 52.5%, Obama 33.5% and Edwards 6.5%.
Michigan: Ongoing, a Clinton supporter is currently making an impassioned speech for “fair reflection” of the vote in Michigan, which according to him means giving Obama zero delegates, which is according to him a fair reflection of Michigan opinion. New math, indeed. As soon as the result is voted on (I expect the “uncommitted” delegates to be given to Obama) I will update.
Excuse me Ickes just said that Clinton has authorized him to take the Michigan decision, should it be unfavorable, all the way to the convention. Clinton’s supporters, who have been hollering throughout, have started chanting “Denver! Denver!”. They have not stopped heckling every Obama supporter who spoke up. The moderator just told them that they dishonor their candidate with their attidude. Indeed.
Result: All Michigan Delegates seated, but with half votes. The allocation is 69 for Clinton, 59 for Obama. The votes are 19 votes in favor and 8 votes against, no absentions. Pretty much as expected. Hillary supporters are VERY pissed and and heckling the committee, making quite a spectacle. They will demand it being taken to the Convention.
A final thought: The Clinton supporters are acting as if they’ve been cheated, when what’s actually happened is that they got a victory. They’ve seated both states in their favor, states their own candidate swore wouldn’t count. The problem is that they are destined to be angry, because they will only be happy if EVERYTHING goes in Clinton’s favor, and that she magically gets the nomination, which simply will not happen.
On the other hand the winning proposal for Michigan was also presented by a Clinton supporter, and another Clinton supporter has said publicly that though it’s not his favorite resolution, it’s something he will support in the interest of the party. I’m sure there are plenty of Clinton supporters not raising a fuss and acting civilized, you just can’t hear them because they aren’t acting like they’re in Junior High.
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