After having first endorsed the decision to strip Florida and Michigan of its convention delegates, the Clinton campaign reversed course and insisted that the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee seat the full delegations from both states, even though voters in the states were told in advance that their votes wouldn’t count, and even though the candidates didn’t campaign in either state.
This morning, the Democratic Party’s lawyers explained that the Rules and Bylaws Committee can’t grant the Clinton campaign’s request — the committee, even if it wanted to, simply doesn’t have the authority. (thanks to Sarabeth for the heads-up)
A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to seat some delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully restore the two states as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to party lawyers.
Democratic National Committee rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, the party’s legal experts wrote in a 38-page memo.
The memo was sent late Tuesday to the 30 members of the party’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, which plans to meet Saturday at a Washington hotel. The committee is considering ways to include the two important general election battlegrounds at the nominating convention in August, and the staff analysis says seating half the delegates is “as far as it legally can” go. […]
The DNC analysis does not make recommendations for how the Rules and Bylaws Committee should vote, but gives context from the party’s charter and bylaws for the committee to consider.
There is, however, an option to restore all of the states’ delegates. It’s just not a very attractive one.
The [lawyers’] analysis also said there is an option to restore 100 percent of the delegates — by a recommendation of the Credentials Committee that meets later this summer. However, that would mean a final decision would not be made until the first day of the convention in Denver since Credentials Committee decisions have to be approved by the full convention as it convenes — risking a floor fight.
In other words, Clinton could decide to take this matter to the Credentials Committee, but that would mean dragging out this process until late August. What’s more, the Clinton campaign could make its case to the Credentials Committee, only to have committee members decide not to grant the request, meaning that the process had been delayed for no reason.
Is Clinton prepared to do that? It’s obviously difficult to speculate, though Clinton did suggest a week ago, in an interview with the AP, that she’d at least consider taking her fight to the convention.
It’s probably worth noting, just as an aside, that if the party were, for whatever reason, to reverse course and accept the results of the Michigan and Florida primaries just as they are, despite all the reasons not to, Clinton would still lose. The delegates she would gain still wouldn’t be enough to overcome her existing deficit.
So, why bother? Because if the campaign can, somehow, get the non-binding Florida and Michigan contests to count, Clinton may be in a position to claim that she won the popular vote. That might not be enough to change superdelegates’ minds in the 11th hour, but it might be enough to undermine the legitimacy of an Obama nomination, and may very well feed the perception that the Democratic nominee “stole” the nomination that Clinton, under this scenario, rightfully earned.
How this is supposed to help the Democratic Party win the White House in November is unclear.