Josh Marshall Doesn’t Seem to Understand Florida: Let Me Explain
By Deb Cupples on May 23, 2008 at 7:02 AM in Current Affairs, DNC, Delegates, Democracy, Democrats, Disenfranchisement, Florida, Howard Dean, Talking Points Memo, Voter Enfranchisement
Yesterday, TPM‘s Josh Marshall or the “person who kidnapped Josh” (phrase from Lambert at Corrente) complains:
“…Then we have a speech like Sen. Clinton’s yesterday in Florida in which she compared the controversy over seating the Florida and Michigan delegates to the Florida recount debacle and many of the great voting and civil rights battles of the 20th century….
“What she’s doing is not securing her the nomination. Rather, she’s gunning up a lot of her supporters to believe that the nomination was stolen from her — a belief many won’t soon abandon….”
For months, in fact, many of us Floridians have drawn parallels between Recount 2000 and the DNC’s stripping Florida of 100% of its delegates — including some of my politically astute, Obama-supporting friends.
Hillary isn’t to blame for that sentiment — and it certainly didn’t result from a speech she made yesterday.
For the millionth time, Florida Democrats had no power to block the moving of Florida’s primary election. Thus, the DNC should not have “punished” Florida Democrats.
Our state legislature moved the primary dates, an entity on which the DNC’s rules are not legally binding. Our State House has about 77 Republicans to 43 Democrats. Republicans constitute about 60% of our State Senate.
In short, Florida Republicans can unilaterally pass or block any legislation they want. They could have moved the primary date without a single Dem vote.
Instead, they wanted Dems to go on record voting for it, so they tied the primary-date provision to a provision requiring paper trails for those touchscreen voting machines that ex-Sec. of State Katherine Harris had persuaded our big counties to buy.
For an idea of how well paperless voting has worked in Florida, see this article about paperless voting machines that reversed the results of a Medley, Florida, election in 2002 (scary stuff). Even better, the Equal Justice Foundation has a list of documented paperless voting-machine problems throughout the U.S.
The upshot: it is for very good reasons that Florida Dems wanted a paper trail, but state Republicans effortlessly blocked Dems’ efforts for years.
Last year, out of the blue, the Republicans decided to give the Dems their paper trail — but only if the provision was in the same bill that included the moving of Florida’s 2008 primary election.
Why, you may wonder, would our state Republicans do something like that? What could they possibly gain?
My guess is that they wanted the DNC to “punish” Florida Dems, which would in turn anger Florida’s Dem voters, which could in turn cause some of those Dems to stop donating money and to stay at home in November 2008 — or to vote for the party that ironically didn’t disenfranchise them this time around.
What other reason could there be, given that the Republicans had the numbers to unilaterally change the primary date and block the paper trail?
Think about it.
If that was Florida Republicans’ plan, then it obviously worked: the DNC reacted in the harshest way possible against their own voters.
Many of us Florida Dems are furious at the DNC for having done so — and would be whether Obama or Hillary were in the lead now.
Adding fuel to the fury, the DNC was not without a choice in its handling of Florida.
According to research printed at No Quarter, the DNC’s rules did not require the 100% stripping of Florida’s delegates — even if Florida Dems had intentionally moved the primary. Instead, the rules required a 50% stripping, and that’s only if Florida Dems had failed to act in good faith.
In fact, Florida Dems did act in good faith: they just didn’t have the power to bring about tangible results. This is a pitiful state of affairs with which we Floridians have lived for years (you can see evidence in our education system — one of the nation’s worst, despite our state’s relative wealth).
If you want background, Wayne Barrett published an accurate explanation at the Huffington Post of what happened in Florida — and of how the DNC reacted both irrationally and unfairly.
For reasons most of us Florida Dems don’t grasp, the DNC didn’t even listen to explanations by our state party leader, former Congresswoman Karen Thurman. Incidentally, she’s no longer in Congress, because state Republicans carved up her district during the 2000 reapportionment.
Giving credit where it’s due, our state Republicans are exceptional at strategizing.
As though there weren’t enough fuel in the fire, the DNC took the extra step of treating other states differently than Florida, showing leniency to New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina after they had moved their primary dates.
Many politically aware Florida Dems have known about all this for months, which is why so many of them now refuse to give the DNC money. Some even asked for refunds of their past donations.
Many Florida Dems are also considering becoming NPAs (our way of saying “Independents”) unless Florida’s primary is counted and new DNC leadership is installed.
And there is solid cause for Florida Dems’ resentment: given the facts and events, it’s obvious that the DNC intentionally disenfranchised Florida — with ears closed and eyes wide open.
Our own U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson talked about challenging the DNC’s decision last August, and the fury of Florida Dems has been building ever since.
That DNC “leaders” have refused to fix the Florida mess that they had caused — and that they had the nerve to suggest pretend solutions, like seating our state’s delegates after the nominee is chosen — has only stoked said resentment yet again.
In short, DNC “leaders” — themselves — caused the resentment that Florida Democrats now feel toward their own party and said “leaders” have insisted on continuing to exacerbate the situation. Now they want party unity?
It’s a shame that the entire nation may have to live with the consequences of a few people’s dismal decisions — unless Florida (our nation’s fourth largest state) ends up not mattering in November’s election. I guess we’ll see.
Memeorandum has commentary.
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Related Buck Naked Politics Posts:
* DNC’s Brazile Still Misleading Public About Florida
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