Democrats debate seating of Florida, Michigan delegates
Party officials meet in Washington to consider whether to restore convention delegates that were stripped from the two states. Hillary Clinton hopes to win delegates and cut into Barack Obama's lead.
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton's effort to revive her faltering presidential campaign moved to the ballroom of a Washington hotel today, as a panel of Democratic officials began considering whether to restore convention delegates that had been stripped from Michigan and Florida.
Clinton won the primaries in both states -- but after Democratic officials had decided that those elections would not count, because the states violated party rules by holding them too early in the year.
Now, Clinton is hoping that the party's rules and bylaws committee will seat the delegates after all, which would allow her to eat into the delegate lead held by Barack Obama.
As the committee proceedings began this morning, a Clinton campaign designee asked the panel to seat Florida's 211 delegates with full voting strength.
Arthenia Joyner, a Florida state representative and Clinton supporter, cited the high enthusiasm of Florida voters in the state's Democratic primary, which drew record turnout despite voters' knowledge that the results would not likely count.
"You have the ability to give voices back to the 1.75 million voters in Florida. That is an awesome responsibility," she told the 30-member rules committee. "You have the ability to seat our full Florida delegation at our national convention.... Let's count every vote, and win in November."
But Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), speaking for the Obama campaign, said the Florida delegates should be seated with each delegate receiving half a vote.
Wexler described this proposal as "an extraordinary concession" by Obama.
Wexler said Obama would have done better in Florida had he campaigned there, but he and other candidates agreed not to do so in deference to the party's decision to punish the two states. In addition, Obama withdrew his name from the Michigan ballot; Clinton did not.
Wexler said it would be unfair to apportion delegates based on an election in which Obama did not campaign. Under questioning, Joyner acknowledged that if the candidates had campaigned in Florida and the primary had been seen as meaningful, turnout might have doubled.
Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) argued for seating the full delegation but said the panel should "at least" seat it at half-strength.
This afternoon the committee began hearing arguments about whether to seat Michigan's 157 delegates.
Obama is only 42 delegates shy of the 2,026 needed to win the nomination, according to an Associated Press tally. Seating any of the 368 disputed delegates from Michigan and Florida, however, would raise the number needed for victory.
Still, Obama could come close to clinching the nomination after the primary elections Sunday in Puerto Rico and Tuesday in South Dakota and Montana. Those contests mark the final balloting of the primary season.
For Clinton, the best-case scenario is to emerge from the rules committee with 111 more Michigan and Florida delegates than Obama is awarded. That outcome is considered unlikely.
Even that optimistic scenario would not allow Clinton to close the gap with Obama, who leads by 202 delegates, according to an Associated Press tally. He has 1,984, while she has 1,782.
janet.hook@latimes.com
peter.nicholas@latimes.com
