Crist would support Florida Dem primary do-over

The Florida governor's backing is important, as primaries are funded by taxpayer money.

Published March 3, 2008 2:40PM (EST)

It might be a little late now to matter, but one important voice has weighed in on a potential solution to the problem of what to do with Florida's Democratic delegates. The state's governor, Republican Charlie Crist, has now come out and publicly supported a revote for Florida's Democratic primary.

The issue is that the Democratic National Committee stripped Florida (and Michigan) of its delegates when the state broke party rules and moved its primary ahead of the approved date. The candidates then voluntarily agreed not to campaign there. But Hillary Clinton won the state, and has been agitating for its delegates, and Michigan's, to be seated at the Democratic convention this summer, while Barack Obama's supporters have been arguing the other way.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean called Crist's suggestion "very helpful," especially because primaries are paid for by state taxpayers, and said, "If they would like to fix that problem so that we can seat Florida without any problems, of course we would like to seat Florida."


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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