You would think it would be over, but it's not. There have been several lawsuits againt the DNC over the early primary which the Florida Democrats supported against national party rules. Bill Nelson filed one and lost, State Senate leader, Steve Geller filed one and lost. One is still pending, more on that below.
Today a Florida delegate filed a suit against the state party for interfering in the party primary process.
Ausman to pursue lawsuit against state over primariesA bitter fight over moving up Florida's presidential primary lives on in federal court, even as President-elect Barack Obama shifts his transition into high gear.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle agreed Monday to allow Democratic national committeeman Jon Ausman to continue his federal lawsuit against the state for what he claims is its unconstitutional meddling in the party primary process.
Neither the Democratic National Committee nor the Republican National Committee made good on their threats earlier this year to completely strip Florida convention delegates as punishment for the Legislature's decision to move the primary from March to Jan. 29 — in violation of party rules. But that doesn't matter, Ausman's attorney argued in a status conference for the suit.
"Nothing has changed," said New York constitutional attorney, Roger Bernstein. "The election, of course, made no difference. The delegate problem is as profound as ever."
The other lawsuit still pending is against the DNC for discriminating against white people in Florida by have two early states with minorities go ahead of them. Yeh, I know. The ones filing it even chuckled at it.
The last thing I have seen on this one was September 26. All the papers were filed.
And so the Florida primary lawsuit continues against the DNC. South Carolina and Nevada were allowed to hold their primaries before February 5th because the high percentage of blacks and Hispanics in those states helped compensate for the pasty complexion of Iowa and New Hampshire.
That's the basis for an amended legal filing planned by Tampa Democratic activist, Victor Dimaio and attorney Michael Steinberg who are suing to have Florida's entire Democratic delegation seated at the National Convention in Denver this summer. DiMaio's original lawsuit claimed the DNC's punishment of Florida violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, but that suit was kicked back by the federal appeals court in Atlanta. Steinberg had a brainstorm when he read discovery papers in a similar lawsuit filed by Senator Bill Nelson that showed the DNC put South Carolina and Nevada's primary dates ahead of 46 other states to give minorities more of a voice in the nominating process. Since the DNC receives federal money to hold their convention, the party is subject to federal civil rights law.
What an interesting turn of the worm. Sometime next week, we may have democrats suing democrats for carrying out a very democratic policy of advancing minorities. Steinberg and DiMaio acknowledge with a grin that their reverse racism accusation will ruffle feathers, but hope the conservative judiciary will be delighted to strike a blow against affirmative action and rule in their favor. Their only objective, they claim, is to see all of Florida's delegates seated based on the January 31st primary election.
Florida went blue for Obama, but that was about the extent of our real success here. And the recriminations and tension continue.
Tiring, and unnecessary.
