Monday, December 31, 2007
Michigan delegate update
WE’VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com
As we’ve noted, Florida has been stripped of its delegates due its early primary. Michigan’s situation, however, is a little more complicated:
As Iowa voters gear up for Thursday’s caucuses, Michigan Democrats have just a few days to change their scheduled Jan. 15 presidential primary or lose all their delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August. The conflict began when Michigan’s legislature set the Jan. 15 primary so voters could exercise greater influence over the selection of the party nominees for the 2008 presidential race, but Michigan Democrats appear likely to end up with no delegates at all and thus little clout at the national party convention in Denver.
The rule-making division of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) recommended on Dec. 1 that the party strip the Michigan Democratic Party of its 156 delegates because of the state’s non-compliance with national party rules. The DNC set Feb. 5 as the earliest date states can schedule their nominating contests [outside of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada]].
…
At the Dec. 1 meeting, the Rules and Bylaws Committee gave the state party 30 days to get into compliance with national regulations before the committee’s recommendation became final and Michigan lost its delegates. The clock started ticking Dec. 5, when the Michigan Democratic Party received the DNC’s official notice. So unless the state party takes action by Saturday to return to its DNC-approved plan to hold a Feb. 9 state party-run caucus, it will lose its delegates. The Michigan Democratic Party has done nothing to indicate it intends to change from the Jan. 15 primary and party Chairman Mark Brewer has said there are no plans to do so.
Assuming Michigan does not change its date, given that Edwards and Obama are not on the Michigan ballot, if the media uses Michigan’s delegates in their summaries, that will be a big psychologist boost for Clinton.
Update: Jerome Armstrong over at MyDD has more on Michigan:
For some reason I never got to the bottom of, Obama & Edwards both made the bone-headed idea of dropping out of the Michigan primary– why, does anyone know?
But as with Florida, the delegates will likely get restored:
The net effect of the DNC’s banning Michigan’s 156 delegates from participating in next summer’s presidential nomination process will be a penalty that is not enforced:
“I don’t think it’ll affect much of anything. All of the nominees said they’d seat delegates. We’ll have delegates in August. (The exclusion) is not expected to be enforced,” DeRoche said, noting it would reflect poorly on the candidates during the presidential election in November if they were not to allow the votes of two states as sizable as Michigan and Florida during the primary process.
Yes, it would be a disaster. Since all the candidates are apparently already on the record for allowing Michigan’s delegates to the convention, that makes the Jan 15th contest there much more than a “beauty contest” as there are going to be 156 delegates that are chosen.
If the media counts Michigan, Michigan’s delegates almost guarantee Clinton a delegate lead going into Super Tuesday. And I don’t think the DNC can do anything about it.
Posted by Matt at 9:28 PM 
What better way to tell the Americian people your vote dont count.
Why have elections, when the DNC decides who should win?
My issue is the fact that a largely democratic state, such as Michigan, would not comply with the DNC party electoral process. It’s as if they feel a democrat is going to win, so why participate. The blame lies with the Michigan legislation.
Election campaigning is all about how to spend resources in the most affective way. Right or wrong, if the decision is to discount michigan delegates, it would be a travisty to “after the fact” indicate that they were “only kidding”. Personally, I a a republican, but to change the rules in hindsite would be a disservice to all the democratic candidates. To do anything else would make the Michigan outcome little more than a “beauty contest”
These votes don’t count. The Michigan votes that will count will be in November.
St. Joseph,MI
The problem lies in the stranglehold the DNC has on a DEMOCRATIC process. Michigan (with possibly the weakest economy in the nation)and Florida have serious and unique concerns that deserved to be addressed by the Democatic candidates. Rather than wait until smaller states with fewer issues whittle down the field of candidates, Michigan and Florida lobbied to have their voices heard due to their significant concerns. Michigan has been lobbying the DNC for years to make the primary process more equitable for all states. The DNC needs to recognize that there are real problems with this process.
I was angry that our MI votes didn’t count, but given the results I’m hopeful they don’t. I don’t think it really represented the views of the electorate because so many voters were misled and didn’t think they could vote in the democratic primary. The day before the primary democratic voters were bombarded with robocalls indicating that there was no democratic primary and everyone should vote for the caller’s republican candidate. This was echoed by the national media who said democrats weren’t voting in Michigan. As a neighborhood leader I found that even educated folks were misinformed about their options and didn’t vote for their choice or even vote at all. But if folks want to take action to try to get the votes to count there is an effort at http://whostolemivote.org/
Yes our vote does count and we must see that it does. We need to email the DNC and tell them that they must reconized the delegates for both Flordia and Michigan It was unfair to single them out because they moved their caucus ahead. Every state needs to be represented. By the Democratic Party withholding them it automatically give Sen. Obama an edge and puts Sen. Clinton on an unfair playing ground, which is very bias. By with-holding the Flordia Delegates it give the appearance that Sen. Obama swept the south which is untrue. To with- hold the Florida and the Michigan delegates count out now when the selection our candidate for president is so close would be unfair and very bias and it would leave me very disappointment in our party that I care deeply about.
Sincerely
jessie lou
I agree that these delegates, in an ideal world, should be seated and these votes counted. But in an ideal world, they would have followed party rules, or a fair protest would have been lodged before now. Can anyone propose a FAIR way to count votes and award delegates in MI? Does HRC get all of the delegates, despite the fact that they are allocated proportionally? If not, how many “undecideds are allocated to Obama, and how many to Edwards, who was in the race then? And how do you FAIRLY adjust the vote to account for the fact that Obama and Edwards supported were less likely to come to the polls, since they could not vote for their preferred candidate? So… I WANT to see every vote count. Can someone tell me how to do it???
why should candidate or voters be disenfranchised for state problem?