Dean says Florida Democrats will be seated

By Eun Kyung Kim, TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT WASHINGTON BUREAU

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean pledged today that Florida's delegation will be seated this summer at the national convention.

"We will absolutely seat the delegation from Florida at the convention. That is in everybody's best interest. All of us are committed to make sure that happens," said Dean, standing next to Florida's party chair Karen Thurman and members of the state's congressional delegation.

"We are confident enough that we have reserved hotel rooms for the delegates of Florida -- in Denver, as far as we know," he said, prompting a roar of laughter from the group.

The announcement came after a closed-door meeting with the delegation. Dean said party members will now work with both Democratic presidential candidates to reach a compromise solution.

"There is a lot of work to be done here," Dean said.

The national party had penalized Florida's delegation by stripping it of its convention delegates because of the state's Jan. 29 presidential primary. The early date violated party rules by a week.

Thurman said the meeting marked a breakthrough.

"We are not looking behind us anymore. We're looking to the future, and we're looking how to resolve this issue," she said. "I think we're sending a very strong message here today."

Rep. Alcee Hastings, the chairman of the Democratic congressional delegation, declared: "There will be no empty chairs on the convention floor in Denver."

Hastings said that although the group still seeks a solution, state and party leaders are now unified and can focus toward a bigger goal -- having a Democrat win the presidential race.

"We spent considerable time discussing the correlation to quickly finding a solution to Florida's delegate situation and winning the state in November," he said.