Whither Michigan?

Jean has expressed some confusion as to what happened on the Democratic side in Michigan. Hillary Clinton beat "Uncommitted" 60%-35%. I had the idea of writing a post about the whole history with MI & FL here, but it got too long, and how it happened is incredibly complicated. In fact, I'm not sure I entirely understand it myself. Here's a good summary of the process that took place to determine who should go first.

Long story short - Michigan and Florida, knowing what the punishment would be, moved their primaries earlier than allowed by the DNC. The DNC stripped them of their delegates. Most of the candidates, in keeping with the spirit of not campaigning in MI, took their names off the ballot. Hillary did not - her campaign argued it was unnecessary. The deadline for removing names from the FL ballot had passed, so it was a moot issue there.

So none of the campaigns had any staff, or organized efforts, to get out the vote. There were some efforts by MI supporters of Edwards and Obama to get people to go to the polls and vote "uncommitted" as a vote against Hillary Clinton. But they didn't convince a large proportion of voters to show up (turnout was about 20%).

There was some spinning on either side of this yesterday, with the Obama camp pre-butting the expected results by essentially saying that no one campaigned there and it didn't matter. The Hillary folks, on the other hand, declared victory and is arguing the results do matter. For the time being, the results only matter in the court of public opinion. Should there be a presumptive nominee, the assumption is that the nominee would move to have the delegates reinstated, and they would then vote for the presumptive nominee. However, if this gets to the point of a brokered convention (highly unlikely on the Dem side), those delegates will likely not be reinstated - because there won't be the votes on the floor necessary to reinstate them.

On a side note, Chris Dodd, former presidential candidate and Senator from Connecticut, is now trying to retire the debt he accumulated from his presidential campaign. Although I don't think he would have been a good pick for our party, I think he made some excellent contributions to the race and helped hold the frontrunners' feet to the fire.

Dear Theo -

No, I'm not retiring from the Senate - I'm working hard as ever, to restore the Constitution, stop that terrible FISA bill and put a Democrat in the White House.

But after our incredible journey campaigning for the Presidency, there is something that does need retiring: our debt.

My internet team tells me the campaign inbox was flooded with messages of thanks and inquiries about how you can continue to help now that the presidential campaign is over.

Today, you can help by contributing financially to our effort to retire the campaign debt.

http://www.chrisdodd.com/contribute

I've spent the past days with my wife and family, unwinding after a grueling process that changed the debate at home and abroad -- that is our legacy from the campaign.

FEC rules preclude me from using the email list to talk much about the war, the upcoming FISA fight and other issues we championed throughout the campaign, but let me assure you: our work will continue with the same commitment you have come to expect from me.

But today, can you help retire our campaign debt?

http://www.chrisdodd.com/contribute

Unfortunately, this email list and our campaign website can only exist to help retire the debt, but the good news is that I'll soon have a new site, my internet team has promised to see through what we started last October, and you'll be hearing from us soon about the next steps on FISA.

Thank you, so much, for everything.

Chris Dodd