Florida Democratic State Chair Karen Thurman meant it when she said it:
| "There will be no other primary. Florida Democrats absolutely must vote on January 29th... The nation will be paying attention, and Florida Democrats will have a major impact in determining who the next President of the United States of America will be." |
She reiterated this on 12/5/07:
| "Accordingly, the Florida Democratic Party will respect the voters' choice on January 29th in determining the allocation of our delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. We are confident that the Democratic Presidential nominee will seat Florida's delegation at the Convention." |
And now she's doing it. Florida is selecting delegates for the 2008 Democratic Convention. Follow me...
Florida Democrats meet on March 1 (a week from Saturday) to select delegates, based on the vote in each of the 25 Congressional districts. Here is a copy of the number of delegates for each candidate each congressional district gets. Note also that these are also apportioned by gender- Florida will be sending 60 men and 61 women to Denver from the district-level delegate pool. The March 1 meeting, one in each Congressional district, is called a "caucus", but the only competition is between different proposed delegates for the same presidential candidate. In other words, you show up, say which presidential candidate you support, vote for the candidates pledged to that candidate, and leave. The primary vote determines how many delegates each presidential candidate gets. Here are the rules:
| The selection of district-level delegates will be in 25 post-primary district-level caucuses around the state on March 1, 2008. The highest vote-getters slotted under each presidential candidate are elected. (The numbers each presidential candidate gets in each district is dependent on the Presidential Primary results in that district.) In order to participate as a voter in the caucus, a voter must establish that he or she is a registered Democrat within the Caucus' Congressional District. Voters must present a voter registration card and photo I.D. The voter will then be required to fill out a statement of support for the presidential candidate whom he or she supports. Delegates and alternates will be elected only by those participants at the caucus who have declared support for the same candidate to whom the delegate or alternates are pledged. Each participating voter must vote for exactly the number of delegate candidates to which the presidential candidate is entitled. |
In addition to the 121 district-level delegates, there are 40 pledged delegates at large and 24 pledged Party Leader and Elected Official (PLEOs), all 64 of whom must pledge a candidate preference (or pledge uncommitted). These 64 at-large delegates and PLEOs are selected by the Florida Democratic Party State Executive Committee on April 5 for PLEOs and May 17 for delegates at large. PLEOs aren't bigwigs, they're mediumwigs at best. They're described as:
| ...big city mayors and state-wide elected officials (to be given equal consideration); state legislative leaders, state legislators, and other state, county and local elected officials and party leaders. |
So the pledged delegates will shake out as follows: at the district level, it's 67 for Hillary, 13 for Edwards, and 41 for Obama, plus an equivalent proportion of the 64 at-large and PLEOs, which would be another 35 for Hillary, 7 for Edwards, and 22 for Obama. The pledged delegate totals are 102 for Hillary, 20 for Edwards, and 63 for Obama.
Also in addition to the 185 total pledged delegates, there are also three unpledged add-on delegates, and 22 automatic delegates (superdelegates).
And we'll be ready to go to Denver.
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