Barack Obama's campaign criticized Hillary Clinton for wanting Florida and Michigan delegates to be included.
By BETH REINHARD
breinhard@MiamiHerald.com
After eight losses in a row and no victories in sight this month, Hillary Clinton's campaign renewed calls Wednesday for the votes in Florida and Michigan to count toward delegates that would help her catch Barack Obama.
Obama's camp said her demand was a blatant attempt to ignore the ground rules set when the national party stripped both states of their delegates for breaking early-primary rules. Last summer, all of the major candidates agreed to boycott the two renegade states.
''Now, when they believe it serves their political interests, they're trying to rewrite the rules,'' Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, told reporters in a telephone call. ``Now, at the 11th hour, the Clinton campaign is trying to rewrite rules that were firmly established, and I don't think there's a lot of appetite for that in the country or a lot of appetite for that at the DNC.''
In fact, when the national party inflicted its punishment on Florida in August, Clinton's campaign did not protest. And on Sept. 1, Clinton went along with the boycott urged by four smaller states authorized by the DNC to hold the earliest contests.
PREVIOUS STANCE
About one month later, her chief rivals took their names off the Michigan ballot. Clinton did not, but said during an interview on public radio, ``It's clear, this election they're having is not going to count for anything.''
But when Michigan voted on Jan. 15, Clinton stood up for voters there and in Florida -- states she expected to win handily. ''The people of Michigan and Florida have just as much of a right to have their voices heard as anyone else,'' the campaign said in a statement as the Michigan results came in.
Since then, as Obama has racked up more victories and nudged ahead in delegates, Clinton and her supporters have repeatedly called for the two states to count. On Wednesday, the day after her defeats in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, top advisors said she was entitled to 178 delegates from Florida and Michigan.
`HAS TO BE RESOLVED'
''We believe those should be counted at the convention,'' Clinton's field director, Guy Cecil, told reporters in a telephone call. ``The issue of the votes in Florida and Michigan -- that has to be resolved.''
That demand is welcomed by Democratic activists anxious about the party alienating voters in the nation's largest battleground state. In recent days, three prominent civil-rights leaders, including the chairman of the NAACP, have argued that the national party's punishment amounts to disenfranchising voters in Florida and Michigan.
''I don't understand why Barack Obama's side would be against Florida voters counting,'' said U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami, a senior advisor to Clinton's campaign. ``I understand they may feel strongly about the momentum and all, but there were 1.7 million Democrats who voted on the 29th.''
But Clinton's appeal on the states' behalf rings hollow to her critics and even to some Democrats who have stayed neutral in the race, though they want Florida to participate in the Democratic convention in August.
`DISINGENUOUS'
Clinton's move to count Florida is ''absolutely very disingenuous now that Obama is ahead in delegates,'' said Ann Zucker, president of the Broward County Council of Club Presidents, who has not endorsed a candidate.
Clinton faces what could be a three-week drought until votes on March 4 in Ohio and Texas, states she needs to dominate in order to regain momentum. Obama is favored to win next week in Hawaii and Wisconsin.
But neither candidate is expected to clinch the 2,025 delegates needed to claim the nomination. Obama is counting on building a lead that is big enough to pressure Clinton to bow out. Clinton is banking on keeping the race tight while pushing for Florida and Michigan.
And both candidates are wooing about 800 elected officials and DNC members across the country, called ''superdelegates,'' who can support whomever they like at the convention, regardless of how their states voted.
''Neither campaign is in a position to win this nomination without the support of superdelegates,'' said Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson. ``We are looking right now at essentially a tied contest.''
That's not how the Obama campaign sees it.
''We have a large pledged-delegate lead,'' said campaign manager Plouffe, pointing to more than 100 extra delegates won in primaries and caucuses. ``The only way she can overcome this pledged-delegates lead is to win most of the remaining contests in blowout form.''
One option still open to Florida and Michigan is to organize party-run elections that count toward delegates.
Miami Herald staff writer Lesley Clark contributed to this report.
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