Will There Be a Florida Democratic Primary Do-Over?

Posted by Richard Blair, The All Spin Zone at 2:13 PM on March 3, 2008.

As those who follow this kind of stuff are well aware, the DNC stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates to the Democratic Party convention as a penalty for moving up the state primaries. Hillary Clinton won both primaries decisively, in what was essentially a "straw vote", since neither state can seat its delegates (as things stand now).

Interesting enough, with the nomination hanging in the balance, and the talking heads chattering that if Clinton can't win both Ohio and Texas tomorrow she should quit the race, Florida governor Charlie Crist has thrown a bit of a monkey wrench into the works. He says he's willing to give the Dems a do-over vote in the Sunshine State:

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is "very helpful" because money is an issue, Dean said.

"We're very willing to listen to the people of Florida," Dean said on CNN's "Late Edition" ...

It's curious that DNC Chairman Dean would make such a comment, and not dismiss the offer outright.

It will be interesting to see if Michigan follows suit with the offer from Florida. While Sen. Clinton won a plurality of the vote in Michigan, her numbers came in at the time the vote was held because she was the only top tier candidate on the ballot. Neither Clinton or Sen. Obama were allowed, by DNC mandate, to campaign in Florida.

With the Pennsylvania primary still waiting in the wings, and the open question of Michigan and Florida still on the table, maybe the vote tomorrow in Texas and Ohio won't carry quite as much weight.

But who knows. This has been the weirdest presidential primary season in memory, so nothing is outside the realm of possibility at this point.

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Tagged as: clinton, obama, florida, dnc, dean, crist

Richard Blair is the blogmaster of All Spin Zone.