Reply #7: FL: Democrats Hot and Bothered Over Delegates [View All]

[livvy]

Democrats hot and bothered over delegates
Posted on Sat, Feb. 23, 2008

BY BETH REINHARD
[e-mail]
In one week, a few thousand Florida Democrats will trudge to their local high school, union hall or community center to cast ballots in a Saturday morning election most voters will never hear about.

The vote will select the political junkies who get to go to the presidential nominating convention. Typically the process merits little excitement.

Not this year.

With the Democratic National Committee refusing to seat Florida delegates because of the state's out-of-bounds presidential primary, activists are threatening to go to the barricades to get into the August convention in Denver.

''If we have to take fire axes, we will,'' declared Kristin Wipior, a board member of the Democrats of South Dade, her fighting words echoing off the mellow walls of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Miami at a meeting this week.

About 180 people from Miami-Dade applied to be delegates this year, more than ever before. Nearly 1,000 applied statewide.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/418/story/429789.html