Hillary's quiet chair>4 Withdraw from State Primary--Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Biden
By DAWSON BELL and KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Four of the leading Democratic presidential nominees have removed their names from the Jan. 15 Michigan presidential primary.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards both earlier today filed paperwork to have their names withdrawn with the Michigan Secretary of State’s office.
Delaware Sen. Joe Biden also removed his name from the Michigan ballot, state election officials confirmed.
And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson sent a letter yesterday, asking to be taken off the list.
Today is the deadline for candidates to have their names removed.
Michigan Democrats were under pressure from the national party to disavow the state’s recent move to push the primary ahead of both the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in violation of party rules.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Michigan Democrats would now switch to their original plan to hold a caucus on Feb. 9.
Earlier today, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said : "I hope they don't withdraw from the ballot. I hope they remain and participate. It's our intent to participate in the primary on Jan. 15."
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and Democratic Party activist Debbie Dingell have been trying for years to break the dominance that Iowa and New Hampshire have in selecting presidential candidates, arguing that those two states aren’t particularly representative of the nation’s vast racial, ethnic and economic diversity.
The Republicans also are violating national party rules, but the party hasn’t forced the candidates to ignore the two states. In fact, all the leading GOP presidential candidates have been to Michigan frequently since the vote in August to move the state’s presidential primary to Jan. 15, and will participate in tonight's debate at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center on the U-M Dearborn campus.
. Post a Comment View All Comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chadster--I never thought that I would actually consider voting for a Republican after the last 8 years. I was stupid enough to actually believe that a candidate like Barack Obama wanted to facilitate change in this country. By maintaining the status quo of Howard Dean and the DNC, Obama is proving that he is nothing more than a one issue candidate; that being the Iraq War. This move is totally expected on lifelong career politcos like Biden and Richardson. As for Edwards, he is nothing more than the b@#strd love child of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. He is the worst of both($400 haircuts and foreclosing on Hurricane Katrina victims through a hedge fund he "consults" for) and the best of neither.
I do not care much for Hillary Clinton as a preidential candidate. I think that she is contrived and believes that running for the highest office in the land is a game, rather than the most important decision that the American people will be making next year.
Are the economies of New Hampshire, with its 4 electoral votes, and Iowa with its 7 electoral votes, so dependent on being the first primary and caucus states during a presidential election that they deem it necessary to hold the entire process hostage from those of us in this country who desire some real change, some true leadership? Michigan has 17 electoral votes and has more problems than Des Moines, Iowa or Concord, New Hampshire will ever see. Unless Michiganders move there en masse. The American people will be quite mistaken if they follow the lead of these two homogeneous states.
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:45 pm |
