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Judge Dismisses DiMaio Lawsuit
Posted May 28, 2008 by William March
Updated May 28, 2008 at 11:45 AM
A federal judge this morning dismissed a lawsuit by Tampa Democratic Party activists Victor DiMaio and Mike Steinberg challenging the national Democratic Party’s decision to ban Florida’s convention delegation because of the state’s too-early primary.
After hearing about an hour of legal arguments from Steinberg, representing DiMaio, and attorneys for the Democratic National Committee, Judge Richard Lazzara granted a motion by the DNC attorneys for dismissal, declining to hold any further hearing on the facts of the case.
DiMaio and Steinberg, who is also chairman of the Hillsborough County Democratic Party, vowed to appeal—even though their lawsuit could quickly become moot. A committee of the Democratic Party will consider Saturday whether to uphold or modify its earlier decision to ban the Florida and Michigan delegations.
DiMaio had alleged the national party’s schedule for primaries, which the Florida Legislature violated by setting the state’s primary Jan. 29, discriminated on the basis of race. That schedule allowed South Carolina and Nevada to hold early primaries, before Feb. 5, in part because of the large black population in South Carolina and the Hispanic population in Nevada.
But Lazzara ruled that political parties have a right recognized by courts to set their own rules for picking the national convention delegates that choose their presidential nominees. He said the Democratic Party’s schedule didn’t amount to “invidious discrimination,” nor did it show any intent to discriminate against Florida voters.
He said the party’s scheduling of primaries was a political decision, and that a court isn’t the appropriate place to contest it.
“I don’t live in a cave and I know that there are many people out there who are disgruntled” by the national party’s sanctions against Florida, Lazzara said in announcing his decision.
But, he added, “The Democratic National Committee put everyone on notice that these were the rules everyone had to live by,” Lazzara said in announcing his decision. “the Florida Legislature in its infinite wisdom, for whatever reason, decided to ignore those rules.”
The DiMaio lawsuit is one of several on the issue.
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