Caucus Date Leapfrog: Forida Gets All Tom Petty on DNC

Caucus Date Leapfrog: Florida Gets All Tom Petty on DNC

Anyone who's been to a campaign rally has heard "I Won't Back Down" by Florida native Tom Petty way too many times. Tangent And Florida, as expected, is taking this page from the Petty songbook and turning up the volume.

CQ has the Florida GOP chair playing semantics:

Greer said that although a primary is scheduled for Jan. 29, caucuses will not begin selecting actual delegates until Feb. 6 and will continue to do so through May 1. On Jan. 29, the party says voters will only be choosing how many votes each contender has at the nominating convention.

Oh, I see. The important thing isn't how many delegates each candidate gets, it's the names of the delegates. Iowa doesn't start electing actual human being national convention delegates till congressional district conventions in April, so this is different... how?

Also in CQ, Sen. Bill Nelson suggests not that Florida move, but that everyone else move: “The easy solution, which can be reached during the 30-day appeal period, is for states that can do so administratively to move their primaries up seven days.” The easy solution for Florida, perhaps, but how does special sessions of a dozen state legislatures sound?

Former Sen. Bob Graham, who some Iowans may recall from his brief presidential bid in 2003 (he dropped out before any contests), concurs with Nelson, telling the Miami Herald:

"Having 20 states vote on Feb. 5, which is legal under the party rules, is much more disruptive than having one state vote on Jan. 29,'' said Graham, who ran for president in 2004. "I think Florida has become a lightning rod for the larger problem."

Also on the Dem side, the solution of a beauty contest primary followed by a delegate selecting caucus is shot down, says CQ:

"Democratic spokesman Mark Bubriski said Monday that scheduling a caucus within the allowable timeframe is not an option the state party is considering."

GOP Gov. Charlie Crist is derisive about the whole thing, telling the St. Petersburg Times:

And is the gov concerned about the prospect of Republicans losing half their convention delegates and Democrats all of their delegates? "Not at all. I think it's silly. It is. What matters is people. The people's vote, the people's will is what these candidates care about."

The St. Petersburg Times also opines that Sen. Nelson hurt the state's cause by comments that one Florida DNC member called "over the top:

The best strategy for Florida Democrats, and one they should have adopted long ago: Stop whining about "disenfranchised voters," stop threatening bogus lawsuits, and instead declare victory as a big state in the thick of the nominating contest. In the Florida fiasco, almost nobody looks good so far.

Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out indeed.

Tangent:



"I Won't Back Down" is one of those six pre-approved, motivating yet inoffensive songs that's on the secret Rally Jams CD that all campaigns have, much like the Jock Jams disks that circulated in the late `90s. CDs are these round things that we used to play music on before we all had iPods.