Gelber: Let's Re-vote by mail

UPDATE: Check out the jump to see the state GOP's response, putting much of the blame squarely on Gelber and his Democratic colleagues.

Dan Gelber, the state House Democratic leader who played a big role in Florida Democrats getting into their mess with a boycotted, delegate-free primary, now offers a solution on his campaign blog: a vote by-mail election. Last we heard, the FDP priced that out to cost at least $4-million (assuming a mailing to every Democratic house hold - though Gelber would invite indendents too). Gelber:

"...So let me suggest a way that not only gets us out of the jam but might even turn out to be better than we could ever hope for. Host a run-off election by mail and include Independent voters. The DNC has already indicated it would approve a compliant election, and a statewide vote by mail should qualify. It is less expensive than caucuses and more inclusive, and I think we could raise the money needed in short order, perhaps with some help from the DNC. Further, why not include registered Independent voters in the election. I promise you, Republicans will quickly stop laughing when they watch Florida Democrats not simply unite but also reach out to the crucial block of voters (Independents) that will be determining who wins Florida in November. Also, a vote by mail would be an invaluable organizing tool for the general election so the money we spent would have added utility. "

"Dan Gelber may try to do an about-face on this issue, but even he can't deny the facts: The Democrats sponsored the bill to move the primary up.  They voted for it unanimously.  Now they want to disenfranchise 1.7 million Democrat voters? That's not only a 'hard pill to swallow,' it's a fatal one,'' said RPOF spokeswoman Erin Vansickle, who offered up a few of the Democrats' golden not-so-oldies:

"I don’t want to get in a game of chicken with the national Democratic Party, but candidly, I don’t represent Howard Dean.  I represent a lot of people who would like to be the primary journey as more than just potential contributors."  --Dan Gelber, St. Pete Times, 02/09/07

"Would we rather have a say in who the party's nominee is or send a few more people to party?" --Jeremy Ring, Tampa Trib, 2/16/07

"I'd love to see him [Dean] enforce that" --Steve Geller, Orlando Sentinel, 4/28/07   

Comments

What happened to "one person, one vote"? This is not grade school, do we really need "do-overs"?

[Florida Democrat]

I like the idea but I don't undersatnd why you would let Independents vote in the re-vote when they are not allowed to vote in our Primary.

Here is a good read:
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2008/02/without-clinton-democrats-risk.html

Anything-to-win-Hillary versiu Talk-a-lot-say-nothing Obama. What a pair of losers!

Is that even legal?

I wonder of Gelber is the one who forwarded that goofy state song to the Times?

um, i'm no lawyer but isn't it the law that primaries are closed to independents except for very rare cases (ie there's no candidate from the other party running)

[the American Left---Clinton and Obama's collective socialist goals. Beware.]

Benito Mussolini was a socialist and earned the title “Il Duce” as the leader of the socialists in Italy. When he founded the fascist party, its program called for implementing a minimum wage, expropriating property from landowners, repealing titles of nobility, creating state-run secular schools and imposing a progressive tax rate. Mussolini took socialism and turned it in a more populist and militaristic direction, but remained a modernizing, secular man of the left.

The Nazis too were socialists, “enemies, deadly enemies, of today’s capitalist economic system,” in the words of the party’s ideologist Gregor Strasser. The party’s platform sounded a lot like that of the Italian fascists. The Nazis wanted to chase conventional Christianity from public life and overturn tradition, replacing them with an all-powerful state. Both Hitler and Mussolini were revolutionaries, bitterly opposed to “reactionary” forces in their societies.

By what standard, then, are they considered conservatives who took things to extremes? The left points to their anti-Semitism and militarism. But anti-Semitism isn’t an inherently right-wing phenomenon — Stalin’s Russia was anti-Semitic. As for militarism, these regimes looked to it as a way to mobilize and organize society, something deeply anathema to the anti-statist tradition of postwar American conservatism.

On the other hand, the progressive movement of the early 20th century looked to Mussolini as an inspiration and shared intellectual roots with European fascism, including an appreciation of the “top-down socialism” of Otto von Bismarck. Goldberg eviscerates Woodrow Wilson as the closest we have ever had to a fascist president. Wilson and his supporters welcomed World War I as an opportunity to expand the state, instituting “war socialism” and a far-reaching crackdown on dissent.

FDR picked up where Wilson left off. The crisis of the Great Depression was the occasion for reviving “war socialism.” The man who ran the National Recovery Administration was an open admirer of Mussolini, and the alphabet soup of New Deal agencies had their roots in World War I and the classic fascist impulse to mobilize society and put it on a war footing.

Goldberg sees the fascist exaltation of youth, glorification of violence, hatred of tradition and romance of “the street” in the New Left of the 1960s, still the subject of the fond memories for the liberal establishment in this country. Goldberg argues that “liberal fascism” — the phrase was coined by H. G. Wells, and he meant it positively — is a distant heir to European fascism. The liberal version is pacifist rather than militaristic and feminine rather than masculine in its orientation, but it also seeks to increase the power of the state and overcome tradition in sweeping crusades pursued with the moral fervor of war.

Goldberg’s keen intellectual history is, at bottom, a profound cautionary tale about the perils of state aggrandizement and of revolutionary movements. If nothing else, it should convince liberals that it’s time to find a new insult.

1:47: No it isn't. Mail ballot elections could be legalized by the legislature this year if they pass a bill but as of now, no they are not.

(1:56) Great, the fascist apologists at Heritage have discovered our blog.

That is OK so long as Jim Greer's strippers from Flashdance don't discover the blog- then Jim could be in trouble.

[DE 9303]

Can any individual, other than the supervisor of elections, conduct a mail ballot election?
Answer: No.
Section 101.6102(3), Florida Statutes, clearly mandates that the supervisor of elections has the
statutory duty of conducting mail ballot elections. Unless the Legislature, by special or general
law, creates an exception, the supervisor must perform this duty. See, Op. Att’y Gen. Fla. 90-40
(May 11, 1990).

Is the SOE funded by the local county of the Department of State? If its the county I am sure the last thing they want to do is spend money on a mail in ballot after amendment 1 passed. If its the state than I don't want them wasting money on this.

this is a riot!

3:18 it's the county

If it is a party primary, paid for by the Florida Democratic Party or DNC, and held in order to select delegates for the national convention, I don't think the vote by mail prohibitions would apply.

As long as it's paid for by the DNC or the Democratic Party, do whatever you want. I really don't care. But don't waste MY taxpayer money on something that the DNC and company screwed up.

Let's have a mail-in re-vote on the idiots Dan Gelber & Steve Geller's elections.

We want new people in, not these fatcats that support local government drunken spending.

I am more interested in GOP chair Jim Greer's nonresponse to Strippergate.

We are a closed primary state. Why should anyone pay to have another vote in the state when a legal election has already been held. What if Obama wins the second one? Now, we all pay the court costs to figure that one out. You ignored us! You made your bed.

[Gene Smith]

The Florida Democratic Party is free to use any method it chooses to select delegates to the Democratic National convention, as long as it otherwise complies with the rules of the Democratic National committee. State law has no real say in this matter.

However, that means that the FDP would have to figure out its own method of getting the ballots to the voters and getting the votes counted.

[Reality Check]

Yet another lame but ridiculously expensive idea to circumvent the will of the people.

The principle is clear -- COUNT EVERY VOTE! A record-breaking 1.7 million Florida Democrats voted in the Jan 29th Presidential Primary. They voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton to be their Presidential nominee.

And now a couple of nimrods from South Florida wna to disenfranchise those voters because the result doesn'tr conform to their hopes & expectations?

C'mon !!! Florida voted. Hillary won. Those are the votes that need to be counted!

Either they count our votes or we vote republican, where a vote counts even if you don't cast it.

The truth is Obama couldn't win Florida or Michigan nomatter how long he tried to put us in that dreamstate. If Obama is sElected he will not be Elected and that's a fact. I hope all the Obamatrons wake up and smell the coffee.

I didn't want either candidate, a presidential vote is no time to conduct a popularity contest on Race and Gender. The color of your skin or the length of your skirt should not decide who is Ripe for this job. Neither one of these candidates are the best we could have chosen. They are both byproducts of lazy thinking and programmed minds. It's my turn....no it's my turn..women have been abused far longer than blacks....no...black women were the first abused category in the Garden of Eden. Dodd of Bidden were most likely the best choices, but Americans wanted a beauty contest instead of a serious candidate.

No matter the winner we will all Loose. Americans are too stupid to deserve an election to begin with. They're better at Shopping, maybe they should pick up a President at the mall.

[bob]

Can't win a race not ran.

Florida had it's election on January 29th.

This is not a third world country where you have elections after elections until you get your results.

LIVE WITH IT!

Nonsense that was "Posted by: the American Left" is off topic and incorrect. I call them SLIME MERCHANT and LIAR.

Spend our money electing a real president after the convention. Prove Democrats know how to OBEY the rules and RESPECT LAWS. One who MEANS it when they swear to UPHOLD the Constitution.

Anything but ANOTHER Bushbot warmonger. No to "Bomb Iran" John. No to McCain being okay with "100 years" in Iraq. No to fearmongers. No to McCain, a man who broke under torture and signed "confession" of "war crimes", who knows personally that torture produces LIES, not truth. And then McCAin votes the other day to OKAY BUSH TORTURE. Thanks for your service John, now please step away from that NUCLEAR BUTTON. His temper tantrums are too scary.

True revenge is living well --- not bombing another innocent country.

Torture is TERRORISM. I don't want our troops TAUGHT to torture or DOING torture. It kills their souls. It is obscene. It is ILLEGAL -- cruel and unusual --- and unAmerican.

[GES]

12:21 am...I am assuming that by your comments of bombing innocent contries you are referring to Iraq and Afghanistan. Both homes of terror and terrorists..it must be your cool-aid induced coma that makes you ignore Abu Nidal, the killer of Leon Klinghoffer living in Iraq and killed there by US Marines...millions of $'s paid by Hussein to Palestinian Terrorists and their familie to kill Jews...ah...to be innocent in the eyes of an American Liberal...the terrorists look forward to your kumbia parties. Why don't you feel the same hate for Fanatic Muslims and terrorists that you do for your own country? Well, have another glass of Koolaid and repeat after me.... Bush Lied, Bush Lied, Bush Lied, now don't you feel better...go to bed now.....are Marines (Your hero Jack Murth refers to those Marines as killers) are on watch...you can sleep safely. Maybe you can sing your self to sleep..onward "atheist soldiers" sounds fitting for you...God Bless America, God Bless the US Marines!

We voted. Once is enough. Seat all of the delegates, both Dem. and Rep. and then fix the stupid system that has dinky states deciding who the next president will be.