Tampabay.com
MARCH 06, 2008

Camp Clinton: Florida voters already spoke, remember?

Despite growing buzz about holding a do-ever to bring Florida and Michigan in line with Democratic party rules regarding the presidential primary contest, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said the campaign still believes Florida and Michigan’s delegates should be seated according to the results of their unapproved primaries.

“We have certainly noted with interest the conversations that are occurring in Florida and Michigan about the possibility of some way to rectify the situation that currently exists,” Wolfson said in a conference call this morning.

“Our position has been all along that the people of these states have spoken, that their votes ought to count, and we have urged our delegation to seat those delegations.”

Most of the Democratic members of the U.S. House from Florida met with their Michigan counterparts Wednesday evening to begin discussing potential ways to hold a re-vote. While Michigan is leaning toward holding community caucuses, meeting participants said there was little enthusiasm for holding caucuses in Florida, and members agreed that holding another primary, at a cost of some $25-million, would be too expensive, unless they got extensive outside funding.

Clinton, of course, won both states handily – Florida on Jan. 29, and Michigan on Jan. 15. But none of the Democratic candidates campaigned there, and Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign says it would be unfair to seat the delegates based on the percentage of votes that Clinton won.

Wolfson said it’s too early to discuss what type of re-vote the Clinton campaign would prefer, but hinted that its pick would be a primary. Obama has won most of the states that hold caucuses.

“We certainly believe that given how well we did in those states, that were there to be a primary, we would have a good opportunity to do well again,’’ he said. “But I haven’t seen any specific plan floated out of those states and I think it’s premature to comment.”

Asked if it would be “cast a pall” on the Democratic nomination process to seat Florida and Michigan delegations as-is – especially if they put Clinton over the top – considering no one campaign there,  Wolfson said, “I think quite the opposite.”

“Not giving participation to the delegations of those states would send a very unsettling signal to the people of those states,” he said.

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