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Fowler: Rules Committee Action On Florida Primary Won’t Matter

Posted Aug 21, 2007 by William March

Updated Aug 21, 2007 at 04:35 PM

The national Democratic Party’s rules committee will take up the matter of Florida’s schedule-busting primary this weekend, but their decision probably won’t matter in the long run, a key committee member said this week.

That’s because the winning nominee – not the rules committee—will have the power to decide whether to seat the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Committee, said Don Fowler, a former national Democratic chairman and now a member of the rules committee.

Florida’s Jan. 29 primary date violates the schedules set by both national parties, which are trying to prevent states from moving their primaries ever earlier.
On Saturday, the rules committee will consider what to to do about that. Under party rules, it could decide to cut the Florida delegation in half, and forbid candidates from campaigning here before the primary, on pain of losing any delegates they might win from Florida.

But Fowler said the political reality is, that rule will never be enforced. The convention’s credentials committee, which will be chosen under the influence of the winning nominee prior to the convention, will decide any questions about whether to seat delegations including Florida’s, he said.

Party officials have denied that the credential committee could overturn a rules committee decision.

But Fowler said, “Once the nominee is known, that nominee and his campaign essentially take over the party. The political reality is that the nominee takes over” the convention, he said.