NYTimes Politics Blog: Florida’s Democratic Delegate Mess [View All]

[Scurrilous]

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"What a strange situation we’re facing here in Florida today.

No Democratic delegates (there would be 210) will come out of this primary — at least not as long as the Democratic National Committee adheres to its penalty rules because the state moved its contest up so early. And only half (57) of the state’s Republican delegates will be counted, conforming to the national G.O.P.’s decision for the same reason.

And while the Republican candidates have criss-crossed this vast, populous state intensively for the last 10 days since the party’s South Carolina primary, no Democratic candidate has been able to campaign here for months because they signed a pledge to only campaign in the four early states. (Aside from fund-raising and an Obama cable TV ad in the last week.)

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is due to descend on Davie, Fla., tonight. She has been leading in the state’s polls here. And having lost the South Carolina primary, coming out ahead here may perhaps give her a boost, however ephemeral given the nature of the absentee campaigns on the Democratic side.

The Clinton campaign, in a conference call billed as "Why Florida Matters" just a short while ago, wants it known that it now believes Florida’s delegates should be seated at the convention. (She released a statement to this effect just last week.) Asked why the campaign hadn’t urged for such a move before, Howard Wolfson, one of the senator’s top advisers, said, "I think there was a widespread expectation when the D.N.C. made its decision that voters in Florida would not participate."

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