Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Michigan revote won't happen

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From Ben Smith at Politico:

'Do-over is dead'

The headline from MIRS, Michigan's Hotline:

Ding-Dong, Do-Over Primary Is Dead
"Time of death for the do-over Michigan primary? Call it at about 11 a.m. today."

A Lansing insider IMs to explain the latest development:

The Senate Dems just had a long caucus meeting following their long phone call with the Gang of Four [as Carl Levin and others pushing a re-vote are called], and the result is that no one moved. Votes aren't there. Thus, it will not go to a vote in the Senate. And barring some other last minute miracle that doesn't involve those four, the Governor, and Hillary traveling to Michigan, it is dead as a doornail.

UPDATE: State Senator Tupac Hunter, an Obama supporter, confirms the outcome of today's meeting.

"The caucus has expressed again today that there is concern about the proposal and a great deal of unreadiness," he said, saying that sentiment is still "overwhelming."

"We informed the four great Democrats who have worked very hard to come up with a solution," he said. "It’s one of those things where you can agree to disagree. The question then becomes, What do we do now?"

With Florida and now Michigan shooting down a possible re-vote the scenarios in our FL and MI by the numbers delegate tracker are getting smaller.

Update: The primary may be "really dead", but is it "truly most sincerely dead"?:
But oddly enough, I'm told that private conversations are continuing right now between officials at the Democratic National Committee, the Michigan Democratic party, and the Hillary and Obama campaigns over ways to salvage some kind of last minute solution.
And the Clinton campaign has found the money to pay for it:
Ed Rendell and Jon Corzine, two governors who back Hillary, write Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm with "a list of individuals who, combined, are prepared to serve as guarantors to ensure that a total of up to $12 million will be deposited in the State of Michigan Presidential Primary Administration Fund by April 17, 2008.

10 comments:

uplandpoet said...

Give each state 50% of what the votes were. Obama will win even if you give the states their full count, but they need to know tthhey pay for breaking rules. I am so tired of hearing my state party and state elected officials whine about it. Get over it, play by the rules next time and get your delegates. here is an idea, seat all the pledged delegates and NONE of the supers from these two states.
I live in Fl and am a long time worker in local Democratic Party politics.

Anonymous said...

I know this doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but my Governor, Phil Bredesen (D TN) has announced that the superdelegates should have their own "primary" in June if the results of the primaries/caucuses do not offer a nominee.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/opinion/19bredesen.html?ref=opinion

Bill UK said...

Mix, a quick retort for your Govenor. Why?

The only answer could be that they do not have to face the onslaught of the pledged delegates should they, the SD's, try to overturn both the pledged delegate majority and the popular vote majority.

Ask him why he has not endorsed either candidate yet, he will know enough about them, about their policies and character, so get him to come off the fence and say who he will vote for.

Anonymous said...

Well I did email him leading up to our primary with reasons why he should support Hillary Clinton, he responded that his main task was to take care of Tennessee right now, but he was watching the race closely.

He hasn't made any comments like the superdelegates should vote the way their constituents have either, and it doesn't really matter as this is his last term in office...

buonarotti said...

hi,
i think it is time to forget the table "including michigan and florida". besides it contains mistakes. the delegate numbers for edwards are wrong, some of them have moved to obama. (iowa!)

Matt said...

buonarotti - The Edwards numbers are correct as far as we know. He's got 4 delegates from NH, 8 from SC, 6 from Iowa (down from 14), and 13 from Florida, for a total of 31. If you think the number is still wrong, please let us know what you think are the correct numbers.

buonarotti said...

hi,
maybe i'm wrong but as edwards has withdrawn he would not get 13 delegates from florida.
would he?
b.

Matt said...

Officially, Edward's hasn't withdrawn, he has only suspended his campaign, so he gets to keep all his pledged delegates from primaries - NH, SC and FL. (In Iowa, as we've seen, nothing is guaranteed). And even if he had withdrawn, he would still get to keep some of his pledged delegates - it would depend state-by-state. But he hasn't withdrawn, so he keeps all his delegates.

buonarotti said...

thanx. it's new for me that edwards hasn't withdrawn.
sorry for having brought irritation into the process.

by the way: is there anybody who can stop clinton and obama from damaging each other? imho this would be the duty of the party leaders (and it should be common sense for the candidates), but there is a kind of mismanagement that is unbelievable. they are working for mccain.

one voice said...

There is a big grassroots movement happening in Florida and michigan to have the people fund a revote at FloridaMichiganRevote.com it is a new sit getting a lot of buzz. It is time for one voice one fight one win.