Florida Ankles Re-Vote

As anticipated, the opposition to a mail-in primary was too fast, too furious, and John Singleton can't direct this thing to a stop yet.

The Florida Democratic Party sent an e-mail entitled "537" to its list -- the number of votes that separated George W. Bush from Al Gore in 2000.

A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it's simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the Party were to pay for it. Republican Speaker of the Florida House Marco Rubio refuses to even consider that option. Florida is finally moving to paper ballots, which is a good thing, but it means that at least 15 counties do not have the capacity to handle a major election before the June 10th DNC primary deadline.

This doesn't mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April.

When this committee stripped us of 100% of our delegates last year, some members summed up their reasoning by saying, "The rules are the rules." Unfortunately, the rules did not apply to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina when they, too, violated the DNC calendar by moving from their assigned dates.

Actually, the RBC won't meet in April (though there may be an emergency session), and in any event, what the FL Dems are referring to here is the credentials committee process, which lasts through the summer.

I know it sounds as if the state party has given up on the idea of a new primary, but .. we shall see.