A do-over? No way, Steve Geller says
With cable news buzzing with the potential for a mulligan primary in Florida, Senate Democrat Leader Steve Geller has a simple response:
“There will not be a do-over primary.”
Geller, of Cooper City, said something the talking heads don’t know is that 15 counties in Florida are already getting rid of touch-screen machines in anticipation of a move to paper ballots over the summer.
“You’ve got (15) counties that, unless you’re planning on standing there counting the votes on your fingers, there are no voting machines,” said Geller.
Also, Geller said because of logistics, including mailing overseas and military ballots, it takes 90 days to do a primary. With the Democratic National Committee’s June 10 deadline for primaries, that means Gov. Charlie Crist would have to sign a bill authorizing a new primary on Monday, Geller said.
“As people are discussing 'Should we have one and who’s going to pay for it,' even if we all agreed we should do this I don’t know how we do it,” he said.
Geller’s solution: seat Florida’s delegation as is, despite the fact that both major candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, agreed not to campaign here after the state ran afoul of DNC rules by adopting an early primary date. Clinton won Florida handily.
“I’m trying to protect the sanctity of the ballot, not to help Clinton and hurt Obama or help Obama and hurt Clinton,” said Geller, who said he voted for John Edwards. “1.7 million Democrats voted.”
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why a do over....makes no sence....we already did the sacred thing. vote! In this country its a God given right to vote when your 18 unless you comit a serious crime. We in Florida exercised that right and now to have some hobo in washington dc tell me that my God give right does not count...who in the hell is this person to take that right away from me.
Posted by: billy | March 7, 2008 1:14 PM
What about those Democratic voters who stayed home?
It is only NOW that Gov. Charlie Crist is concerned about the voters in Florida, LONG after his Republican controlled state government overturned both the RNC & DNC rules.
Isn't the timing interesting?
Governor Crist launching this “hue & cry” that all Florida voters “need to count” immediately after his new best friend, John McCain has secured the Republican nomination.
Could it be, because of his refusal to pay for this using the excuse of good fiscal stewardship, that the Governor Crist is attempting to get some additional votes for his good friend, John McCain from Moderate Democrats and Independents who are projecting their unhappiness about not having their vote counted onto the Democrats or the DNC?
Is he looking for a VP slot for all this loyalty?
Will the Democrats in Florida vote for McCain versus placing the blame where it lays – with Governor Crist’s state government?
And is it an accident that Governor Crist is DOUBLE teaming with Michigan's Democratic Govenor who JUST happens to be a Clinton supporter?
Karl Rove could not have planned this better himself.
Probably the RNC doesn't want to pay to do the digging to have as thick a file on Senator Obama as they already have compiled on Senator Clinton.
In the NY Times yesterday there was a Caucus post about which websites the RNC have purchased domain names for. There are many interesting Clinton combinations with other peoples’ names but only slur against Obama is that he is not seasoned enough.
Plus many unaffiliated Republican Pundits have commented on Obama's "ground game" portion of his campaign as rather phenomenal.
Outside from the obvious problems caused by Senator Clinton aligning herself & endorsing Senator McCain’s “bona fides” while she tears into her Democratic opponent, Senator Obama, the Republican attack machine can far more easily blame and USE her as an excuse for any dirt that they want to throw covertly.
Today on CNN Morning, a Republican strategist accused the Clinton campaign of creating a Rezko website and gave the website domain.
When my son was young, one of my primary responsibilities was to teach him that his choices had consequences and that he needed to consider the consequences BEFORE he acted on his choice.
I not only agree with Howard Dean, I applaude him. He is the wall that the Clintons' and their co-horts have not been able to crash through and they are out to destroy his credibility.
However, both my son and Howard Dean know that choices have consequences.
Both states were repeatedly warned that they were not to move up their primaries and if they did so, there would be consequences for violating the rules.
In my opinion, the responsibility of all this rests FIRMLY on the shoulders of both of the states’ governors and their state governments for DISENFRANCHISING their voters and going public about this now says MORE about their failure to adequately govern their constituencies than it says anything about either the DNC or RNC.
NONE of this passes the SMELL TEST!
Posted by: Dari | March 7, 2008 2:17 PM