Posted Feb. 13, 2006 – In a strange twist in the battle for minority rights, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond’s demand that the Democratic Party count delegates in Florida and Michigan, where Hillary Clinton was the only candidate on the primary ballot, could wind up denying Barack Obama his place as the nation’s first African-American presidential nominee.
Bond, in a Feb. 8 letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, decried a political system he said would mean that “millions of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted."
But Bond’s assertion raises two very interesting questions: 1.) Why did it take him until Clinton was about to get steam-rolled before he pointed out the alleged injustice? 2.) Given the fact that Obama’s winning more than 80 percent of the Black vote, can’t it be extrapolated that we know the will of Black voters in Michigan and Florida?
Another glaring question could be: Where is this public outcry about “racially discriminatory” practices coming from?
University of Maryland political scientist Dr. Ronald Walters, a longtime Democratic strategist, told BET.com that Bond’s letter is downright bizarre. “This baffles me,” Walters said. “The [Democratic] Party can’t do that…. It seems to me that if somebody took this to court, it would be dismissed rather quickly.”
But Bond argues that the exclusion of Black voters in these states is a flashback to America’s "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries.”
For some political observers, Bond’s letter alludes to another type of “sordid” political machination – the kind where powerful Democratic Party insiders have the clout, IOUs and the political muscle to woo big-name, long-in-the-tooth African-American, Civil Rights-era stalwarts, who happen to be from Georgia. People like Andrew Young, who said that Obama should sit this one out and let Clinton have the nomination, and Rep. John Lewis, who says that the Clintons have proved that they have Black America’s interest at heart. Now, Bond, another civil rights giant and longtime Georgia lawmaker, exerts the kind of pressure on Dean that would almost guarantee Clinton the nomination. It should be noted that, officially, Bond has not endorsed either candidate.
After Obama swept the Democratic primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., Tuesday – marking eight straight victories – the Illinois senator led Clinton in the delegate count 1,210 to 1,188. Clinton fell behind for the first time since the campaign began.
The Democratic Party penalized Michigan and Florida by stripping them of their delegates when those states upped their primaries to earlier dates, violating rules. The penalty cost Florida all 210 of its delegates and super delegates, and Michigan its 156 delegates. Both Clinton and Obama signed a pledge promising they would not campaign in either state. All of the candidates, except Clinton, had their names removed from the ballots in those states. After “winning” Michigan’s primary on Jan. 15 and Florida’s on Jan. 29, the Clinton campaign has been pushing to have those delegates seated.
But, given Obama’s rising momentum, it’s not a given that Michigan and Florida would go for Clinton if voters were given an opportunity today to choose between the two candidates. Recent polls show that Obama is steadily expanding his base to include more older, rural, female, Latino and White male voters.
Dean has said he is leaving it up to the states to decide whether they would like to hold caucuses as a remedy. Primaries are too expensive and require too much time to organize, officials say. This could also portend more bad news for Clinton in that she has not won a single caucus so far.
An NAACP spokesman told BET.com late Wednesday that Bond was not necessarily calling for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be seated, only for a way to have minority votes in those states counted. Caucuses might be a solution, he said.
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