Midday Open Thread: Michigan and Florida Do-Overs

by Jason Rosenbaum :: Filed Under Daily Briefing, Elections 2008 :: March 6th, 2008 @ 11:28 am EST

As both campaigns dance around the idea of re-doing the seriously messed up Michigan and Florida primaries, Howard Dean is laying down the law:

We’re glad to hear that the Governors of Michigan and Florida are willing to lend their weight to help resolve this issue. As we’ve said all along, we strongly encourage the Michigan and Florida state parties to follow the rules, so today’s public overtures are good news. The rules, which were agreed to by the full DNC including representatives from Florida and Michigan over 18 months ago, allow for two options. First, either state can choose to resubmit a plan and run a process to select delegates to the convention; second, they can wait until this summer and appeal to the Convention Credentials Committee, which determines and resolves any outstanding questions about the seating of delegates. We look forward to receiving their proposals should they decide to submit new delegate selection plans and will review those plans at that time. The Democratic Nominee will be determined in accordance with party rules, and out of respect for the presidential campaigns and the states that did not violate party rules, we are not going to change the rules in the middle of the game.

In a later statement, he said the DNC will not pay for the primaries, so it is up to the state parties to come up with the funds. Governor Charlie Crist of Florida has offered to pay, while Governor Jennifer Granholm has not.

I personally feel a do-over is the only fair resolution. Nobody is disenfranchised and the candidates get to truly campaign. Thoughts?