Florida Democrats Sue Party over Primary Sanctions

WASHINGTON — Florida's two senior members of Congress asked a federal court Thursday to invalidate the Democratic National Committee's decision to strip the state of its national convention delegates next summer because it scheduled a primary election earlier than the party's rules allow.

"Every one of the more than 4.25 million registered Democratic voters in Florida will be completely disenfranchised and their constitutional rights ... rendered meaningless," said the lawsuit.

RICK MCKAY/Cox News Service (enlarge photo) Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., left, and Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., right, shake hands following their news conference Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007, to discuss their new lawsuit challenging the Democratic National Committee's party decision to ignore the vote in Florida's 2008 presidential primary. RICK MCKAY/Cox News Service (enlarge photo) Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., left, holds his copy of the U.S. Constitution during a joint news conference with Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., right, to discuss their new lawsuit challenging the Democratic National Committee's party decision to ignore the vote in Florida's 2008 presidential primary.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee on behalf of Sen. Bill Nelson, Rep. Alcee Hastings and Janet Taylor, the only black member of the Hendry County Commission, one of five Florida counties monitored by the U.S. Justice Department for potential discrimination under the 1965 Voter Rights Act.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean, the DNC, and Florida Secretary of State Kurt Browning are the defendants. Nelson said Browning, a Republican, was included because of the state's role in holding elections.

"The issue in front of us is simple. It's a case of fundamental rights versus party rules," Nelson said at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol. "But it's really about the right of every American to have access to the ballot box, the right of every American to have their ballot counted, and to have it counted as intended."

"For the DNC to say to the fourth largest contingency of Democrats in the nation that their votes will not matter in next year's presidential primary is not only shocking and ironic, but we believe is illegal," Hastings said.

Luis Miranda, a spokesman for the DNC, said the party normally doesn't comment on pending litigation, and added, "we have not been given the courtesy of seeing the claim."

Florida's Legislature changed the state's presidential primary date from early March to Jan. 29. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle saw it as a way of giving the state a greater role in the nominating process.

Nelson said an attempt by Democrats to set the primary for Feb. 5, 2008 — the earliest date most states can vote and conform to the DNC's rules — was defeated in the Republican-controlled legislature.

Nelson and Hastings noted that the Republican National Committee has also threatened to prevent half of the state's GOP delegates from participating in the party's national convention next year because the early primary also violates Republican rules.

They said they would welcome Florida Republicans to join the effort by challenging the GOP position.

"This lawsuit is not about Florida's order in the primary chain," Hastings said, but about the right of voters to have their ballots count.

Hastings, who championed civil rights and voting rights as an attorney early in his career, said, "I've seen this movie an awful lot in Florida, and quite frankly, I don't know that I can tolerate it.

"Blacks and other minorities in Florida have long faced discrimination at the polls," Hastings said, criticizing the invalidating of many votes cast in predominantly black precincts during the 2000 presidential election and the unexplained 18,000 votes that did not indicate a congressional choice two years ago in Sarasota County.

Florida Democrats tried repeatedly to get national party leaders to consider a compromise that would have allowed the state to proceed with its Jan. 29 primary and have the results count, Nelson said.

Those efforts included trying to get other primary states to move their balloting ahead one week, holding a state convention after the primary to formally ratify the vote, or trying to get the legislature to move the primary back a week or more, according to a fact sheet issued by the two lawmakers.

"Every time it was 'nyet, nyet, nyet,' " Nelson said, using the Russian word for no, "and so we don't have any other choice."

Nelson said the suit was filed as a pro bono (no charge) case by Miami attorney Kendall Coffey, who played a key role during the 2000 election dispute in Florida on behalf of then-Vice President Al Gore.