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Geller Tries To Set Record Straight On Florida Primary, Says Dems May Suffer In November

Posted Feb 22, 2008 by William March

Updated Feb 22, 2008 at 07:13 PM

State Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller of Miami, combatting what he calls “revisionist history,” has emitted a squawk of protest over the treatment of Florida and its presidential primary by the national Democratic Party, contending the party’s actions will hurt its nominee in Florida in November.

Angered by an email exchange between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over whether the Florida Democratic convention delegation should be seated, Geller wrote a long, occasionally bitter email of his own to scores of Democrats on the subject.

In an interview, he summed it up:

“If the DNC doesn’t come down off their high horse, it’s going to cost us tens of thousands votes in Florida,” he said. “If we lose the election because we lose Florida, and we lose Florida by less than 50,000 votes, this will be directly because of the DNC and Howard Dean, and I want to ask them how they’re going to be able to look themselves in the mirror.”

Geller wrote his email after reading emails from Clinton backer Chris Korge and Obama backer Kirk Wagar arguing over the Florida delegates. Clinton, who won the state primary and therefore most of the delegates, says they should be seated; Obama says they shouldn’t.

Geller’s chief argument is that that Florida Democrats weren’t to blame for moving up the primary date to Jan. 29, which violated the DNC schedule and led the party to ban Florida’s delegation. Republicans, who dominate both houses of the Legislature, had agreed on the move, with the blessing of Gov. Charlie Crist.

“We are being punished for something over which we had no control,” Geller said. “The Democratic National Committee is punishing the Democratic voters of Florida for this. This is the height of insanity.”

It’s been widely reported that prior to the 2007 legislative session, when the date change was passed, many Democratic leaders favored it. Even during the session, some remained in favor.

But when it became clear that the national party intended to penalize the state, Geller notes, both he and House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber introduced amendments to push the date to Feb. 5, which would have conformed to party rules. Their amendments failed on voice votes, but most Democrats voted for them, he said.

It has been widely alleged that Geller and Gelber weren’t serious about their amendments, but Geller says they gave that appearance only because they knew their amendments had no chance of passage.

“I chose not to make us appear weak by giving a strong speech and then losing badly,” he said. In the end, Democrats voted for the bill including the change, because it was attached to a bill requiring paper-trail voting, which no Democrat would vote against.

Geller also notes that Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which had Democratic Party approval for early primary dates, all ended up violating the same party rule Florida violated. Because Florida and Michigan had moved their dates up, those three states moved their own dates up as well. The party accepted those changes, but not Michigan’s and Florida’s, he said.

“I’m disgusted with the prima donnas at the DNC,” Geller wrote. “With their attitude, I’m not sure that we deserve to win the presidency in 2008. The problem is that I know that the American public doesn’t deserve four more years of a Republican presidency.”

Addressing Obama, he added, “You are making it more difficult for you to carry this state in November if you are the nominee by your repeated remarks about Florida. For all of our sakes if you are the nominee, please stop making remarks that the Republicans will use against you in November.”

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