Some Obama supporters would like 2nd Mich. election
February 6, 2008
By DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
freep.com
LANSING — Interest in giving Michigan Democrats a second chance at selecting a presidential nominee increased today after the Super Tuesday primaries failed to establish a clear frontrunner between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Currrently, the delegates selected in Michigan’s Jan. 15 primary, which Clinton won with Obama not on the ballot, don’t count. Michigan was sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee for holding the election too early. In theory, Michigan’s delegates could be restored to active duty status -- and still make a difference -- if the state party held a caucus in the next few months and made it, not the Jan. 15 election, the official delegate selection event.
The idea is attractive to at least some of Obama’s supporters, since he removed his name from the Michigan primary ballot. Among Democratic candidates at the time, only U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich campaigned in Michigan. State Rep. Tupac Hunter, a Detroit Democrat who is one of Obama’s most ardent Michigan supporters, said: “I’m open to that possibility.”
Still, holding a do-over election is unlikely, said analysts and insiders. They said it’s too complicated, too expensive and too apt to backfire (as many believe happened with the Jan. 15 primary) Florida is in the same situation as Michigan because it also held it’s primary before the authorized Feb. 5 date. Only four states --Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- were permitted to go earlier without violation national party rules. |
