The Delegates of Florida and Michigan

by: Hopeful

Sat May 31, 2008 at 07:12:28 PM EDT

In February 2007, Jay, JRB and I went to the 2007 Winter DNC meeting, as part of the DNC's effort to make its workings more transparent to the public. I was in the room for the meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee, and I described the meeting:

The rules for 2008 seek to give incentives for states to schedule their primaries later in the season. The key is that these are incentives only, so that if New Jersey moves up to February 5 we will not lose any delegates. Since our original date was in June, we would receive a 10% bonus for remaining there. (This is a reward for "good behavior.") By the way, if we moved back to June from an earlier date, we would have gotten a 30% bonus.

Well, we could have had another 11 delegates if our Presidential election is next week, but that's not the point. The rules were plain -- even an amateur (me) could understand them. Since the minimum penalty was 1/2 the delegates, today's decision on Florida and Michigan's delegations is appropriate. Perhaps New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina should have penalized too, but frankly as a New Jersey voter I have no interest in what order the four early votes go before us.

Hopeful :: The Delegates of Florida and Michigan

Tags: delegates, Michigan, Florida, DNC, primaries, (All Tags)

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The Delegates of Florida and Michigan | 3 comments

Here's a tip (4.00 / 1)

I didn't blog about it then, but a nice young lady from Chicago sat next to me, and explained the inside jokes about how Donna Brazile and Harold Ickes disliked each other. I guess that isn't going to change soon.

Frank LoBiondo Record and Jon Runyan Watch

by: Hopeful @ Sat May 31, 2008 at 23:15:31 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Donna and Harold (4.00 / 2)

Well, I don't like Harold Ickes much today, either.

It's not a particularly snappy signature, but here's what I think we need in the next NJ Democratic State Chair.

by: Rosi Efthim @ Sun Jun 01, 2008 at 02:23:12 AM UTC

by: you @ soon

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Ancient history (0.00 / 0)

I got to know Harold Ickes in 1968 when he and Sarah Kovner ran Gene McCarthy's primary campaign in New York State (McCarthy won) and I worked with him in some subsequent campaigns. I haven't seen Harold in a long time but I assume he is still the smart and savvy organizer he was then. There were of course people who didn't like him--that's to be expected--but I never met anyone who didn't respect his talents and his political skill.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." (Teddy Roosevelt)

by: DottieG @ Sun Jun 01, 2008 at 15:00:39 PM UTC

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