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 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 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 »

Florida Democrats reacted to weeks of political wrangling today by ditching plans for a mail-in revote, the Miami Herald reports. "Thousands of people responded," Florida Democratic Party chair Karen Thurman wrote. "The consensus is clear: Florida doesn’t want to vote again. So we won’t." But she said the Sunshine State still isn't calling it quits. More »

Florida Democrats will announce plans for a new June 3 mail-in primary, despite opposition from the state's congressional delegation and concern from both candidates,  USA Today reports. Opponents are concerned ballots may fail to reach low-income voters who tend to change addresses frequently. Hillary Clinton wants the results of the original primary, which she won, to stand. More »

Michigan and Florida senators appeared closer today to approving mail-in re-votes for their disqualified primaries, the Swamp blog reports. DNC chair Howard Dean said he also supported the mail-ins if state leaders can agree with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on how to run them. “I have to run these rules so that the losing side feels it’s been treated fairly,” he said on “This Week with George Stephanopolous.” More »

Floridians will get a chance to vote again in the Democratic primary, this time by mail, if Florida Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Charlie Crist have their way. Nelson tells Newsweek that plans are all but set for a re-vote, this time paid for by soft money donations. But hurdles remain, including what Nelson’s spokesman calls a “tiny” Florida law against mail-in voting. More »

With the nomination race tied up, eyes are turning to Florida and Michigan’s delegates, and top Democrats are mixing it up over funding for a primary re-do, the Hill reports. US Sen. Bill Nelson, a Hillary Clinton supporter, has urged the DNC to accept the results or pony up $20 million, warning that denying the delegates will be the “biggest train wreck you’ve ever seen.” More »

Despite big wins yesterday, Hillary Clinton still needs a secret weapon to make up her delegate deficit and, Walter Shapiro writes in Salon , her strategy might have been presaged in Ohio by Gov. Ted Strickland urging, “Let’s go to Michigan and Florida." Do-over votes in those states, whose primaries weren't recognized by the Democratic Party for violating scheduling rules, could be her next push. More »

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wants to redo his state’s Democratic primary, and DNC chair Howard Dean is “very willing to listen to the people of Florida.” Crist, a Republican, isn't committing any funding, however, and officials have said the state won’t pay for a $4 million caucus or a more expensive primary, the Orlando Sentinel reports. More »

Barack Obama has taken a lead of more than 100 delegates in the race for the Democratic nomination, leaving Hillary Clinton with a deficit she's not likely to make up unless she wins Texas and Ohio with a landslide, the New York Times reports. With dwindling options, aides say she'll push aggressively to seat disqualified delegates from Florida and Michigan, where she won the primaries unopposed, a move likely to be highly divisive. More »

Michigan and Florida Democrats—stripped of delegates to the national convention when the states moved their primaries ahead of Super Tuesday—could get another shot at helping select the candidate, the Wall Street Journal reports. With Hillary Clinton and Obama in a dead heat, pressure is mounting on the states to come up with a new delegate-selection process, such as a caucus or convention, that doesn't violate party rules. More »

Mitt Romney is “almost there” in his quest to narrow the GOP race to two, but the men he’s beating are hanging tough against him—and the silvers aren’t adding up to gold. The departing Rudy Giuliani is passing the torch to John McCain, while Mike Huckabee—"the Christian leader who never turns the other cheek to Romney"—is willfully staying in to siphon votes from Mitt, argues Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr. More »

The Hispanic vote clinched the Florida victories of both John McCain and Hillary Clinton, the Miami Herald reports. McCain's POW experience especially resonated with Cuban-Americans, and Hispanic voters' fondness for Bill Clinton boosted Hillary, who won among Hispanics by a 2-1 margin over Obama. The strong presence of retirees also bolstered both McCain and Clinton. More »

How did the man who took summer polls by storm fall so precipitously in the esteem of GOP voters that he was finished by Florida, the state he chose for his first big victory? It could be the hubris, the inexperienced campaign team, the strategic mistakes—or it could be that "the more Republican voters saw of Mr. Giuliani, the less they wanted to vote for him," conclude Michael Powell and Michael Cooper in the New York Times . More »

GOP hopeful John McCain won in Florida last night by pulling together the same coalition that worked for him in New Hampshire and South Carolina: moderates, voters concerned about the economy, and those most disenchanted with Bush. Romney campaigned on "fixing Washington" but McCain is the candidate with a long history of being the anti-Bush "maverick," writes Real Clear Politics. What's impressive is that he did so in a closed Republican primary—with no input from McCain-loving independents. More »

Hillary Clinton took half the Democratic vote in Florida's primary but the numbers should still give her as much to worry about as to celebrate, writes the Nation . She took only a quarter of the black vote and came behind John Edwards in some rural counties—an ominous sign ahead of Super Tuesday, when many states with large numbers of rural Democrats will vote. More »

John McCain scored a hard-fought victory over Mitt Romney in Florida tonight to establish himself as the Republican front-runner a week ahead of Super Tuesday, Politico reports. McCain got 36% of the vote to Romney's 31%. Rudy Giuliani, who staked his campaign on a win here, managed just 15% and will reportedly drop out. Mike Huckabee had 13%. More »

Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the presidential race in the wake of his weak third-place finish in Florida and endorse John McCain tomorrow, NBC News reports. Giuliani is expected to fly to the Ronald Reagan library in California to make the announcement. "We ran a campaign that was uplifting," a dejected Giuliani told supporters. Asked later whether he was dropping out, he responded only, "I'm going to California." More »

Hillary Clinton won the Democratic primary in Florida tonight, but she'll have no delegates to show for it, the AP reports. None of the Democrats campaigned here because the national party stripped the state of convention delegates—a punishment for moving up its primary without permission. Still, 1.5 million Democrats voted, with Clinton getting 50%, Obama 33%, and Edwards 14%. More »