Florida and Michigan and the DNC rules

With Hillary Clinton beginning a serious push to get the Florida and Michigan primary delegates seated and the votes counted, it made me wonder just what those DNC rules were regarding the two states and just what each candidate agreed to back in August.  It's very hard to find the actual rule voted on by all but one member of the DNC rules committee and although the gist of the ruling has been debated for some months, finding the wording is practically impossible.  But, here is what I have been able to learn so far:

In August of 2007 the DNC Rules Committee adopted a resolution by  Ralph Dawson of New York and voted almost unanimously to strip the states of all its delegates unless it offers a new plan that meets DNC rules.  When the rule was put into effect, the states had 30 days to come up with a new date before the rules took effect.  Neither Florida or Michigan did this.

The DNC rules stipulate that states that have not been granted a special waiver must schedule presidential nominating contests after Feb. 5.  Any state that moved its primary ahead of the Feb. 5 window automatically loses half of its delegates under the new rules.

The rules stipulated that no state could hold their primary before February 5th except the traditional states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

In 1996 Delaware was similarly punished for similar actions.

Michigan lost 128 possible elected delegates and 28 superdelegates (these supers may be in dispute since they are independent of most voting)  Florida lost 156 and 25.

What did the candidates agree to after the rules went into effect?  They all agreed not to campaign in Michigan and Florida.  Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot.  But did they agree to abide by the "no delegates awarded rule"?  I can't find anything to that effect, but Count the Votes website has a number of "what the democratic rules really state questions" and answers.

Now what?  On May 31 the DNC rules committee will be meeting and each campaign will be given the opportunity to submit challenges to the rule.  The members of the rules committee and who they are personally supporting can be found on the Huffington Post site.

What can they do now?  Divide the total delegates between Clinton and Obama?  Let the results stand as voted and seat the delegates accordingly?  Throw out the delegates completely? 

We'll see next week.

Comments

[nmcpublisher@yahoo.com]

How does the the passage of Florida House Bill 537 play into this? Didn't the governor sign a bill that set a date of the last Tuesday in January 08 to run a primary for Republicans and Democrats? Who is the DNC to override that legislation? Did it want the state to run a special primary just for Democrats? That would cost $$$$$$$$$

barry