Stories related to: Florida primary

Democratic officials voted today to seat Florida and Michigan primary delegates as half-votes, the AP reports. At a boisterous hearing, delayed by nearly 3 hours of private talks, the party seated Florida delegates based on the state's primary vote, with 105 for Clinton and 67 for Obama. The Michigan deal was more complex, giving 69 of the half-votes to Clinton and 59 to Obama. More »

The Democratic rules committee has begun a daylong meeting to try to settle the dispute over the seating of Florida and Michigan’s delegates, chosen in violation of party rules. Many Dems expect half the delegations from each state to be seated, the Washington Post reports, which would do little to alter the delegate math that underscores Barack Obama’s virtual lock on the nomination. More »

Democratic leaders say the primary fight will be over next week, making it all but certain that Barack Obama will be the nominee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and party chief Howard Dean say they will press uncommitted superdelegates to make up their minds by midweek, after Tuesday's final primaries, the New York Times reports. “By this time next week, it will all be over, give or take a day," said Reid. More »

A plan to give each of Florida’s Democratic delegates a half-vote and to split Michigan’s halved delegates evenly between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is “gaining some traction in the right circles” ahead of Saturday’s DNC meeting, Talking Points Memo discerns from an MSNBC report. The compromise would net Clinton 19 delegates and set a new “magic number” of 2,118. More »

By Democratic Party rules, the long-awaited committee meeting on Saturday is authorized to re-seat no more than half of the outlaw delegations from Florida and Michigan, party lawyers have advised in a new memo. The Rules and Bylaws Committee is required to maintain a penalty for the leapfrogging states that cuts their original delegate counts at least by half, the AP reports. More »

Attempts by Hillary Clinton supporters to link the push to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations with fights for suffrage and other freedoms the world over is "an equation that makes a mockery of democracy and feminism,” Harold Meyerson writes in the Washington Post —particularly since Clinton herself supported sanctions on the states until it became politically urgent to shift course. More »

Bill Clinton claimed this weekend that there is a conspiracy to bury polls showing Hillary to be the better Democratic general-election candidate against John McCain, adding, “I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running.” “Oh, this is so terrible," said the former president of conspirators' reaction to positive Hillary Clinton tidings, "we have to cover this up.” More »

Memorial Day dates from the Civil War, but this week, thanks to HBO’s Recount, a different internecine conflict will be in the air: the 2000 election. The generally factual portrayal of the Florida snafu gets Hendrik Hertzberg of the New Yorker thinking about another hairsplitting debate over vote counting. Perhaps inevitably, he zeros in on Hillary Clinton and her claims that she's winning the popular vote over Barack Obama. More »

With primary voting in its final stretch, the long-simmering argument about outlaw Florida and Michigan balloting is heating up. Hillary Clinton's camp is still arguing that all delegates should be seated, while Barack Obama said seating half the Florida delegates would be “a very reasonable solution”—though he discounted the vote's legitimacy, calling it “essentially a referendum on name recognition.” More »

Hillary Clinton’s insistence that she’s winning the popular vote not only promotes a meaningless rubric in a delegate contest, but it's also a dangerous claim—and a false one, Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek . Not only is Clinton trampling on old sore spots (think Al Gore in 2000), but she’s also in the wrong, Alter asserts, then runs through the math. More »

A defiant Hillary Clinton signaled yesterday that she might take the nomination fight all the way to the convention, the New York Times reports, again emphasizing the importance of seating Florida and Michigan delegates in a swing through the Sunshine State. Those delegates still wouldn't erase Barack Obama's lead, but some insiders believe she's trying to a make a symbolic point about the nomination process. More »

Hillary Clinton’s tactics have been especially divisive in the last few days, and Katharine Q. Seelye writes in the Times that maybe she’s “veering into dangerous territory” to force her rival to bargain. Some suggestions on what she wants from him: More »

Last night’s primary disappointments have Hillary Clinton's aides skeptical about their candidate’s chances, the Washington Post reports. Advisers say their only hope is a last-ditch push to include results from Florida and Michigan. “Absent some sort of miracle on May 31st, it’s going to be tough for us,” said one senior official. “We lost this thing in February.” More »

The Clinton campaign is looking past 2,025—the current delegate threshold for clinching the nomination—and focusing on 2,208, the magic number if the party seats Michigan and Florida delegates, the Washington Times reports. “That’s what we believe is the standard for deciding this,” says a top strategist. More »

Stumping in Oregon today, Hillary Clinton kept up her fight to recognize Florida and Michigan primary results, saying the votes had been “officially tallied,” the AP reports. “The question is whether those 2.3 million Democrats will be honored.” Meanwhile Barack Obama’s camp, which has offered to evenly split the disputed delegates, reminded reporters that Clinton once said the contests “didn’t count for anything.” More »

The Obama and Clinton campaigns and the DNC are discussing a plan to seat Florida’s 185-delegate slate according to the outlaw primary’s results—but to give the delegates only half a vote each, Politico reports. Separately, Dean met with Florida Democratic leaders today and declared, "We will absolutely seat the delegation at the convention.” More »

A new plan from a Michigan congressman would apportion about half the state's Democratic delegates based on its outlaw January primary and the other half according to national popular-vote tallies, the AP reports. “The last thing we want to do as Democrats," Bart Stupak wrote to Democratic Party chief Howard Dean, "is to disenfranchise voters.” More »

The top Senate Democrat says his party's presidential nomination will be wrapped up before the Aug. 25-28 convention. “It will be done,” majority leader Harry Reid declared of the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—adding mysteriously, Politico reports, that he’d spoken to party chairman Howard Dean and that “things are being done.” More »

A federal appeals court today tossed a lawsuit from a Florida Democrat who claimed the Democratic National Committee violated his rights by stripping the state of primary delegates. But the challenge might not be dead, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: A lower court ruled the plaintiff lacked standing because he hadn't voted in a Florida primary; now that he has, he could amend the suit. More »

Hillary Clinton’s aides say their candidate’s chances of winning the Democratic nomination grow ever slimmer, the New York Times reports, and she will need victories in Pennsylvania and the national popular vote—as well as a confidence-shaking event in Barack Obama's camp—to succeed. She can't likely overtake Obama without re-votes in Michigan and Florida, and the Jeremiah Wright flap is cooling. More »