Florida, Michigan delegates cannot save Clinton
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press
May 16, 2008
Page 3 of 3
The plans before the committee will be more generous to Obama. The Michigan Democratic Party has proposed giving 69 of its 128 delegates to Clinton and 59 to Obama, an advantage of 10 delegates for Clinton.
A proposal from Florida would halve its 185 delegates. From that, Clinton would get 52.5 and Obama 33.5, a 19-delegate advantage for Clinton.
''I think it's a reasonable solution to the problem that was created, and my hope is that we'll be able to get past this and move on,'' said Allan Katz, an Obama supporter who serves on the panel but won't be able to vote on any Florida solution because he is from the state.
The committee is not bound to select the proposals offered and has authority to reinstate any number of delegates and divide them in any way.
An open question is how to handle the other type of delegates each state lost -- the superdelegates who are party leaders not bound by the outcome of the vote and are free to support whatever candidate they personally choose. Michigan has 28 superdelegates, and Florida 25. A total of eight have declared for Obama, seven for Clinton and the rest are undeclared.
Germond said she hopes the meeting will begin the process of unifying the party.
''Probably what we will come up with will not make everybody or anybody completely happy, which will mean that we did a good job,'' she said. ''It is mighty unfortunate that at this point in our nominating process we are talking about people who did not abide by the process instead of talking about (beating Republican presidential candidate) John McCain.''
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