Time to fix state’s primary mess

OUR OPINION: DEMOCRATIC PARTY MUST RESPECT BALLOTS OF FLORIDA VOTERS

Miami Herald Editorial 

Fri, Feb. 15, 2008

When the Democratic National Committee declared last year that it would punish Florida and Michigan for violating its primary election calendar by refusing to seat delegates to the party convention, it failed to foresee today's state-by-state battle for votes. Now the 210 delegates from Florida and the 156 from Michigan loom large. The two leading candidates are squaring off for a credentials fight based on purely selfish interests. The only way out of this mess is to call in some grown-ups.

Solomonic GOP

The root of the problem is the ill-considered decision by the DNC to blacklist Florida and Michigan because both states moved up their primary dates without getting prior approval. By contrast, the Republican Party's decision to cut the size of the two states' delegations in half makes the GOP look downright Solomonic. The party imposed a penalty without disenfranchising the voters, allowing Republicans in both states to have a say in choosing the nominee.

Predictably, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are disputing the right of the delegations to be seated on the basis of their own political goals instead of focusing on the rights of the voters. In Florida, 1.7 million voters cast a ballot in the Jan. 29 primary. Why should they be disenfranchised for the actions of a Republican-controlled Legislature that unilaterally decided to change the primary calendar?

Sen. Clinton, who originally agreed with the DNC's decision, now claims that the delegations should be recognized, which is entirely self-serving because she would get the lion's share of votes. Sen. Barack Obama has not exactly been a beacon of hope for voters, either, given that he wants to deny Sen. Clinton any more delegates and is willing to toss Florida voters overboard in the process. Yet he is not wrong to argue that seating the delegations amounts to changing the rules after the game has been played.

The party has suggested that both states hold a caucus in order to legitimize the delegations. That's a nonstarter. As Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said recently, ''You can't undo an election with a caucus.'' Democratic voters in this state have already expressed their will -- in record numbers -- and that vote should count.

Disenfranchised voters

If the DNC won't reconsider its decision, it should assemble a committee of elder statesmen with no ties to the campaign of either candidate to resolve the issue in a way that respects both the party's rules and the Jan. 29 results. If Democrats want to indulge in a bare-knuckled credential fight from which only the other party can benefit, that is certainly their right -- and well within the party's kamikaze tradition.

Our concern, however, is for voters who are being disenfranchised through no fault of their own. If their rights are not respected by the party's leadership, the party stands to lose any claim it may have to the loyalty and support of the voters of this state.