Gov. Crist: Florida primary was fair to Obama David Edwards and Nick Juliano

Published: Thursday March 6, 2008



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Print This Email This Florida's Republican governor doesn't think his taxpayers should pay for a Democratic party do-over of its presidential primary, and he insisted the results of January's non-election was fair to Barack Obama. Obama lost Florida's Jan. 29 primary to the then-higher-profile candidate Hillary Clinton after all Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign there. The vote allocated no delegates to the Democratic convention after state officials violated party rules in moving up the state's primary. (Ironically, if Florida had played by the rules it would have voted Tuesday along with hotly contested Texas and Ohio, a role in which its results could have had substantial impact.) Party leaders are discussing the possibility of a re-vote in Florida and Michigan, which also moved up its primary in violation of party rules. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist says the previous election should count in light of the record turnout it inspired. "We want them all to be seated because democracy matters. ... The people should be heard," Crist said. Asked whether an election in which both candidates agreed to stay on the sidelines really was a fair election. "We think so," he said, noting that the Obama campaign ran a national ad that also ran in Florida before the primary. The battle over Michigan and Florida delegations could continue to divide the Democratic party for months, or even bubble into an intractable split at the convention. Crist, a supporter of GOP nominee John McCain, acknowledged his partisan bias but said that had nothing to do with whether to seat Florida's Democrats. "I want the next president to be a Republican, he said, but "I'm the governor for all the people in Florida." Crist insisted that Florida was right to deliberately defy party rules in moving up its election, even knowing that such defiance would result in its losing delegates. "Moving up the election is the right thing to do. Democracy is always the right thing to do," he said. Earlier in the program, Crist defended the moved primary with flowing invocations of the American Revolution and Cuba in a single thought. "What matters is that we set a date for the people to be able to vote ... to put Florida at the forefront of choosing the next leader of the free world. That's our right that our Founding Fathers put forward when the founded this country. So many Americans have fought for that precious right," Crist said, pivoting to Cuba. "You know, in Florida, just 90 miles south of Key West there's an island called Cuba where they don't have that precious right." This video is from CNN's American Morning, broadcast March 6, 2008.





