After hours of emotional testimony and sometimes contentious debate, Democratic Party officials agreed yesterday on a pair of compromises to seat Florida's and Michigan's delegations to their national convention. But a part of the deal drew an angry reaction and the threat of a subsequent challenge from the campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The compromises by the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee called for both delegations, originally barred from the convention for violating party rules, to be seated in full in Denver but with each delegate casting only half a vote.
The actions by the committee were aimed at bringing the long and sometimes-bitter Democratic nomination battle between Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Clinton (N.Y.) to a close and to ensure party unity as the Democrats head into the general election. But the decisions prompted bitter and sometimes-tearful reactions from some members of the audience, who repeatedly shouted over the committee members as they voted.
Obama remains the heavy favorite to win the nomination, with his campaign hoping that he can secure enough delegates over the next week to do so. Puerto Rico's primary will be held today, and the last two states, Montana and South Dakota will vote Tuesday.
The Florida agreement stated that the delegates would be allocated on the basis of the state's January 29th primary, netting Clinton 19 more delegates than Obama. The Clinton campaign had pushed a proposal to seat the full delegation with full voting power, however that proposal was shot down for the half vote compromise, which passed 27 to 0.
But the Michigan plan was the real sticking point because of the way the state's delegates will be awarded. Under the Michigan plan, Clinton will be given 34.5 delegate votes over Obama's 29.5 delegate votes. This percentage distribution was recommended by the leaders of the Michigan Democratic Party, which based this percentage on a combination of the January 15th primary results, exit polls, and an estimate of uncounted write-in ballots. The Clinton campaign argued for an allocation based on the primary, giving her 73 delegates to Obama's 55 delegates. The Obama campaign argued that the delegation should be split 50-50 between the two candidates. Michigan was the big enchilada for Hillary Clinton, providing her campaign enough delegates to reduce Obama's lead in the pledged delegate count.
The problem for the Democratic Party is that they were stuck with a bad situation. Yes, Florida and Michigan moved up their primary dates in violation of the Democratic Party Rules, and were stripped of their delegates to the convention. They really should not have been seated at the convention. However, there were two big problems with this Democratic primary race. The first problem is that we have a close primary race, with Obama's lead over Clinton in the pledged delegate count being around 175 delegates. Had the race been decided around Super Duper Pooper Tuesday, we would not have been in this situation here in trying to figure out how to seat these two states' delegations. But because we still have a close horse race between Obama and Clinton, some type of compromise was needed to bring these states' delegations into the convention. The second problem was the Michigan primary. Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot while Clinton kept her name on. The Michigan primary results were skewered into Clinton's favor, especially with the large number of "uncommitted" votes Michigan residents selected. Some of the "uncommitted votes may have been for Obama--others may have not been. I can't say. But the Michigan Democratic Party had to figure out a way to seat these "uncommitted" delegates, or even consider the number of Michigan residents that decided to stay home for the primary, knowing that their votes would not count. The Michigan Democrats had to figure out some type of compromise situation to reflect a probable outcome in a primary race between Clinton and Obama. It may not be the most perfect or democratic compromise, but it takes into account three different tallies of primary results, exit polling, and write-in ballots. It is a working compromise to get some type of Michigan vote into the convention during a Democratic primary race that has been the most unusual and out-of-the-ordinary primary race that I have ever seen in my lifetime. The Florida and Michigan compromise resolves this incredible sticking point for seating these two states into the Democratic National Convention. And since I was content with having either Clinton or Obama being the Democratic nominee, the compromise works for me.
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