Mich., Fla. receive half-votes for delegates

Democratic Party leaders decided Michigan and Florida delegates will be allowed half a vote each at this summer’s Democratic convention — a decision an MSU political expert said the states should have expected.

It was unreasonable of Michigan and Florida not to expect sanctions for moving up the dates of their primaries, knowingly violating party rules, said Paul Abramson, an MSU professor of political science.

“You can’t expect the party leaders to be as wise as King Solomon,” Abramson said.

Both states are being penalized for holding their primaries before Super Tuesday, in violation of party rules.

It took Democratic Party leaders nine hours and a 19-8 vote to come to the decision, which will split Michigan’s delegates in favor of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., awarding 69 delegates to her and 59 to Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Obama’s campaign originally proposed an even split of Michigan delegates between the two candidates.

Democratic National Committee member and MSU Trustee Joel Ferguson said he thinks the delegates should have been split “73 to 55, the way the election was.”

It was unanimously decided — based upon the results of Florida’s January primary — that Clinton will be given 105 pledged delegates and Obama will be given 67, each of which will be allowed one half of a vote.

Some of Clinton’s supporters said that, because Obama chose to remove his name from Michigan’s ballot, he should not have been given any pledged delegates.

Obama supporters said they had compromised enough by allowing Clinton the majority of delegates in both Michigan and Florida.

Still, others are unsatisfied with the compromise entirely, because not all votes are being counted.

Allan Katz, a rules committee member and Obama supporter, said the Obama campaign had enough votes on the committee to support its proposal to split the delegates 50-50 in Michigan.

Ultimately, the campaign agreed instead to support the compromise negotiated by the Michigan Democratic Party as a way to resolve the matter.

“The ironic thing is Obama had the majority of that committee,” he said.

“The Obama campaign wants to move on and compromise. We did not muscle our way through it. It was a wise decision from a well-run and wise campaign that will reverberate.”

Abramson said he thinks the compromise was appropriate.

Obama gained 36 delegates in Florida and 32 delegates – including committed superdelegates — in Michigan.

With a total of 2,069 delegates, including the 15 delegates won in Puerto Rico’s Sunday primary, Obama needs just 49 more, now that the number of delegates needed to ensure the nomination was increased to 2,118.

Clinton now has 1,9115.5 delegates, including at least 34 delegates won in Puerto Rico, after gaining 56.5 delegates in Florida and 38 in Michigan.

Many of Clinton’s supporters were unsatisfied with the compromise.

Tina Flournoy, who led Clinton’s efforts to seat both states’ delegations with full voting power, said she was disappointed by the outcome but knew the Clinton position had “no chance” of passing the committee.

“I understand the rules.” Flournoy said. “I can tell you one thing that has driven these rules was being a party of inclusion. I wish my colleagues will vote differently.”

It is thought by some that such strong disagreement between the campaigns will make restoring party unity that much more difficult.

Montana and South Dakota’s primaries to take place Tuesday are the only ones remaining in the race.

Staff writer Heather Lockwood contributed to this report.