Members of the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee met privately for more than three hours, and apparently hammered out a compromise deal. As expected, it fell short of the Clinton campaign’s more recent demands.
Democratic party officials said a committee agreed Saturday on a compromise to seat Michigan and Florida delegates with half-votes after Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to get enough support to force their positions through.
Clinton’s chief delegate hunter Harold Ickes angrily informed the committee that Clinton had instructed him to reserve her right to appeal the matter to the Democrats’ credentials committee, which could potentially drag the matter to the party’s convention in August.
“There’s been a lot of talk about party unity — let’s all come together, and put our arms around each other,” said Ickes, who is also a member of the Rules Committee that approved the deal. “I submit to you ladies and gentlemen, hijacking four delegates … is not a good way to start down the path of party unity.”
The Clinton proposal to reverse last year’s DNC decision and honor the results of Florida’s non-binding primary failed on a 15-12 vote. Clinton supporters began yelling, “Denver! Denver!” apparently indicating their support to push the controversy to the Credentials Committee, which meets at the start of the national convention in late August. (Under the Clinton campaign’s proposal, Florida would not be punished at all for having violated party rules, and the results from its non-binding primary would accepted in full — the opposite of what the Clinton campaign agreed to before it won the state’s vote in late January.)
Instead, the committee unanimously approved a measure to halve the state’s delegates. By one count, Clinton would get 52.5 delegates, Obama would get 33.5, and Edwards gets 6.5.
Resolving the question over Michigan, where Obama was not on the ballot and whose primary Clinton specifically said shouldn’t count, proved to be trickier.
The conclusion was not quite what was expected.
The Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws
Committee on Saturday voted to seat all Michigan delegates to its convention, giving each a half-vote and dividing them to give Hillary Clinton a slight edge over Barack Obama.The 19-8 vote gives 69 pledged delegates to Clinton and 59 to frontrunner Obama — each with half a vote because Michigan was penalized, like Florida, for moving its primary ahead in the campaign season.
Where does that leave the candidates? The AP concluded:
The resolution increased the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination to 2,118, leaving Obama 66 delegates short but still within striking distance after the three final primaries are held in the next three days. […]
Obama picked up a total of 32 delegates in Michigan, including superdelegates who have already committed, and 36 in Florida. Clinton picked up 38 in Michigan, including superdelegates, and 56.5 in Florida.
Obama’s total increased to 2,052, and Clinton had 1,877.5.
The key quote, of course, came from Clinton adviser and RBC member Harold Ickes, who helped pull Florida’s and Michigan’s delegates in the first place, but who has since become a fierce opponent of his own decision. He announced, “Mrs. Clinton has instructed me to reserve her rights to take this to the Credentials Committee.”
“Reserve the right,” however, is not necessarily indicative of what the Clinton campaign will do, only what it might do.
Stay tuned.