DNC should pay for do-over

DNC should pay for do-over

Dallas Morning News: In the irony of ironies, Democratic votes from Florida and Michigan may count, after all — just not in the way anyone could have predicted years ago, when this presidential primary season seemingly began.

To recap, Florida and Michigan wanted a bigger bite of the nomination process and moved up their primaries, defying a national party that did not want to dilute the first-in-the-nation Iowa-New Hampshire nexus. The Democratic National Committee, in response, stripped both states of all delegates to the national convention, neutering the primary votes.

Democrats now must ask themselves whether rigid adherence to rules makes the best long-term sense.

With the excruciatingly close Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton race, those Florida and Michigan delegates really matter, bringing calls from the Clinton camp to count the primary vote (wrong answer) or from others to hold do-over elections (right answer).

Count on the mail

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., would have the states hold mail-in-only, do-over votes. This sounds reasonable. But since elections cost money, who pays? (Estimates are $6 million for Florida and, one presumes, a like amount for Michigan.)

Our view? Unless the DNC wants to cede two battleground states to Republican nominee John McCain in November, pony up.

DNC chair Howard Dean has had his ups and downs with strategic planning, but we’re confident he’ll realize:

The closest Democratic presidential primary in a generation should not be decided by 48 states.

However morally superior the DNC’s position — “We told you not to move your primaries; now pay the price” — he will have a tough time making the case to millions of Floridians and Michiganders that his party cares about them.

This fight may reach the floor at his national convention in Denver, at a time when the party will want unity, not division, to be the storyline.

Neither state government is likely to come up with the money for new elections.

Framed that way, a few million DNC-raised bucks seem like a small price to pay.