Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Alcee Hastings say they plan to follow through with their threat to sue the Democratic National Committee over its plan to strip Florida of its convention delegates because of the state’s Jan. 29 primary.

The suit will be filed in federal court in Washington tomorrow morning. Afterward, Nelson and Hastings plan to hold a news conference.

The national committee gave the state party until Sept. 29 to figure out how to award delegates to a presidential candidate without relying on the Jan. 29 primary election, which is a week earlier than allowed by the DNC.

The DNC has tried to protect early presidential contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada by threatening other state parties with loss of delegates to the national convention if they participate in primaries before Feb. 5.

Echoes of 2000

Something about this sounds familiar: Florida Democrats have picked Kendall Coffey, the Miami attorney who took the lead for Al Gore during the 2000 recount, to challenge the Democratic National Committee's decision to relieve the state of its delegates at the 2008 presidential convention.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, Florida's top House Democrat, say they plan to file suit next week to force the DNC to recognize Florida's Jan. 29 presidential primary. The DNC voted last month that Florida must forfeit its delegates because the primary will be held before the allowed date of Feb. 5.