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cyberdude611 -> Dems abandoning Florida? (9/23/2007 11:42:24 AM)
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Dems may be throwing away 27 electoral votes before the election even starts... Democratic leaders in Florida is at complete odds with the national party and neither side is going to budge. The fight is over what date Florida should be allowed to have it's primary. The state decided to move up its primary to Jan 29 which is a violation of the rules in both political parties. However the punishment by the GOP is nowhere near as severe as the punishment by Democrats. The GOP will only penalize half of Florida's delegates. But the Democrats will force Florida to give up ALL its delegates and also prohibit any Democratic candidate from campaigning in Florida (except for fundraisers). Both GOP and Democratic analysts say this will have an extremely negative effect on the Democrats and may cost them what has been historically a critical battleground state. A state where Hillary already has a very high negative rating. ---------------------------------------------------- BAY AREA (Bay News 9) -- Florida Democrats said the polls will open January 29 despite the punishment of losing 210 delegates to the National Democratic Nominating Convention. National party rules prohibit any state from holding its 2008 primaries before February 5, with the exception of a handful of states. Florida Democratic leaders still have five days to change their minds, but they said that won't happen. They said 75 percent of the committee members support the early date. Both Bay News 9's Democratic and Republican analysts think this decision is likely to have a negative impact. "They'll be a lot of Democratic donors who don't want to give because they're so upset with this," Democratic analyst Bob Buckhorn said. "It will have an adverse impact on the Democrats," Republican analyst Bob Martinez said. "By virtue of the feeling of being ignored, being, 'you'll come here for my money, but not for our vote.' " All the major Democratic candidates have signed a pledge to stop campaigning in Florida if the rules are broken. Those candidates would come to the state only if they're holding a fundraiser, not for campaign stops. The state's Democratic leaders are expected to hold a news conference this afternoon to elaborate on their position. http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2007/9/23/289894.html?title=Primary+scramble
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