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Obama Hints He’d Seat Florida Delegation

Posted Sep 30, 2007 by William March

Updated Sep 30, 2007 at 11:28 PM

Barack Obama hinted during a Tampa fundraiser Sunday that if he’s the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, he’ll seat a Florida delegation at the party’s national convention, despite national party sanctions prohibiting it.

He didn’t say it outright, but came close, according to local Obama campaign leaders Frank Sanchez and Tom Scarritt, both involved in organizing the fundraiser.

Obama was asked during the event about making sure Floridians have a role in the nomination, despite the DNC sanctions and the pledge. He responded “do what’s right by Florida voters,” Scarritt said.

Obama also appeared to violate a pledge he and the other leading candidates took not to campaign in Florida before the primary.

How?

After the fundraiser at Scarritt’s Hyde Park home, Obama crossed the street to take half a dozen questions from reporters waiting there.

The pledge covers anything referred to in Democratic National Committee rules as “campaigning,” and those rules include “holding news conferences.”

Obama seemed unaware of that. Asked whether he was violating the pledge, he said, “I was just doing you guys a favor. … If that’s the case, then we won’t do it again.”

That was less than a day after the pledge took effect Saturday, and Obama is the first Democratic presidential candidate to visit Florida since then.

The leading Democrats have pledged not to campaign in Florida until the Jan. 29 primary, except for fundraising, at the demand of the four “early primary states—Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

The DNC, meanwhile, has threatened to refuse to seat a Florida convention delegation because of the state’s too-early Jan. 29 primary. But if a candidate amasses enough delegates before the primary to ensure the nomination, that candidate would take control of the convention, including the power to seat a delegation.