Florida goes ahead with delegate selection, despite sanctions

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, AP Political Writer

Saturday, March 1, 2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- The Florida Democratic Party is going ahead with plans Saturday to select delegates for the national convention, even though the state had no delegates at stake during the Jan. 29 presidential primary.

The state party wants to be prepared in case it succeeds in efforts to have delegates seated when the convention begins this August in Denver. The Democratic National Committee stripped the state of its delegates because it violated party rules by holding its primary before Feb. 5.

"We said from the beginning that we're going to move ahead with our plan because we were forced into this election date. We're trying to comply with the rules," said state party spokesman Mark Bubriski. "We remain confident that our delegates will be seated and we plan to appeal to the nominee or the credentials committee to seat our delegates."

Florida's Republican-led Legislature passed a bill to move up the primary and Republican Gov. Charlie Crist signed it.

The state party will hold caucuses in each of Florida's congressional district, during which any Democrat can vote on who should serve as delegates. A total of 121 district-level delegates will be chosen based on how the state voted in the January primary. Sixty-seven will be assigned to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, 41 to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and 13 to former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
Despite the possibility that none will be seated, Bubriski said interest in the selection process is high. He speculated that more people are aware of a process largely ignored in the past because of attention given to the dispute with the DNC.

"We're excited about the enthusiasm," he said. "People were rushing out today to print more ballots because they're expecting higher turnout than ever before."

Florida was supposed to have a total of 210 delegates, including at-large delegates and superdelegates.

The DNC didn't immediately comment on Florida's plans. Even if the credentials committee decide to seat Florida delegates, it wouldn't have to apportion delegates based on the results of the primary.