Democrats Pledge to Seat Florida Delegates

WASHINGTON — Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean pledged Wednesday to seat Florida's delegates at the party's national convention this summer.

State Democratic leaders said the pledge sets a new tone for how Florida will be treated and puts pressure on the presidential candidates to work out a compromise.

Dean's pledge came after a meeting with the state's Democratic congressional delegation and Florida party chair Karen Thurman. It reversed a position held for months in which national Democratic leaders have threatened to bar Florida from the convention because the state's Jan. 29 primary was held before Feb. 5, in violation of national party rules.

"While there may be differences of opinion in how we get there, we are all committed to ensuring that Florida's delegation is seated in Denver. We're committed to working with both campaigns to reach a solution as soon as realistically possible," Dean and Florida Democrats said in a joint statement.

Dean said he was so confident Florida's delegation would be seated that hotel rooms have been reserved, but he would not say where.

"It's our hope that the candidates will join us in this effort, and without them an agreement is not possible," said Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., who heads the state's congressional delegation and is pledged to Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Hastings said he hopes to talk to Clinton "as soon as possible" to urge her to reach a solution. But Hastings said he would not propose a specific plan to her.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., who is pledged to Obama, said he planned to talk with Obama's campaign manager and chief political strategist in the near future to discuss options.

Wexler said there is no plan to bring the two campaigns together to try to resolve the issue.

Rep. Ron Klein, D-Fla., said he expects the campaigns will reach an agreement when it is considered mutually beneficial.

"There will be a point in time over the next number of weeks I imagine in which they'll come together and make an arrangement, when they can stand next to each other and tell Democrats from around the country and in Florida that 'this, here, is how we're going to resolve this,'" Klein said.

At the meeting with Dean, the Florida Democratic Party unveiled an analysis of more than 10 plans for dividing the convention delegates and how each plan would affect Clinton and Obama.

Wexler said two plans appear to be the focus of attention. Both are based on the Jan. 29 primary, which Clinton won although none of the major candidates campaigned in the state.

One plan one would give Clinton a margin of 19 votes by allocating half of the delegates based on the outcome of the primary and splitting the other half evenly between Clinton and Obama.

The other plan would give Clinton a margin of six votes by allocating half of the delegates based on the outcome of the primary, and the other half according to the proportion of votes each candidate received in each congressional district.

Clinton supporters have said the DNC should count Florida's delegates either based entirely on the primary or by holding a new election in the state.

"We have long maintained that pretending the voters of Florida and Michigan don't exist is not fair in principle and unwise in practice," said Phil Singer, Clinton's deputy communications director. Michigan also held an early primary and has been sanctioned by the national party. Michigan was not represented at Wednesday's meeting.

But Obama has rejected any solution based solely on the statewide outcome of the Florida and Michigan primaries.

"Our response to that has been essentially crickets chirping," said Kirk Wagar, Obama's finance director.

The decision to ignore Florida's primary has been a problem for Democrats because of the historically tight race between Obama and Clinton. Republicans have promised to make the Democratic delegates an issue during the general election campaign.