Lawsuit against DNC filed by 3 prominent Broward Co., FL Democrats to seat FL delegates

[seafan]

Talk about pressuring the DNC even BEFORE THE MEETING ON MAY 31.


Who wants to bet who these people are representing??



Geller files federal lawsuit in an attempt to get Florida delegates seated

Posted by Anthony Man at 1:10 PM
May 22, 2008

State Senate Minority Leader Steve Geller filed a federal lawsuit today against the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to get the full Florida delegation seated at the party's national convention - with its votes weighted to reflect the results of the disputed Jan. 29 primary.

Geller, a Cooper City Democrat, is a superdelegate - assuming Florida delegates are seated at the national convention. He says he's uncommitted, but seating the full delegation based on the Jan. 29 results would have the effect of helping Hillary Clinton in her bid to catch up with Barack Obama in the contest for nominating delegates.

Geller said that's not his intention, and to bolster that claim his two co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Barbara Effman, a delegate pledged to Clinton, and Percy Johnson, a delegate pledged to Obama.

"I would have done this if Senator Clinton needed the votes or Senator Obama needed the votes or if Senator Edwards were still in the race and needed them," Geller said.

Geller, Effman and Johnson said their objective is to get the will of the 1.75 million Florida Democrats who voted in the primary reflected in the state's delegation, and to have that delegation count.

Failure to do that would send the message that the national Democrats don't care about Florida Democratic voters, they said. And the repercussions would be so great that Democrats in the fall might not bother voting in the general election or might actually vote for Republican John McCain, Geller said.

"This is not about the Hillary Clinton campaign. This is not about the Barack Obama campaign," Effman said. "This is about Democracy."

All spoke at a noon news conference at the Fort Lauderdale-based Greenspoon Marder law firm, where Geller practices law when he's not doing legislative work. One of Geller's law partners, Richard W. Epstein, is handling the case.

Effman is president of the largest political club in the county, the West Broward Democratic Club. Johnson is president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Democratic Club.
For those of you who want to do lots of reading, here are some documents provided by Geller's office.

Here is his letter to the Democratic National Committee: Download file

Lawsuit seeks to seat Florida delegates

South Florida Business Journal - by Paul Brinkmann
May 22, 2008

Three prominent Broward County Democrats filed a federal lawsuit Thursday morning against the Democratic National Committee, seeking to force the committee to seat Florida's delegates at the upcoming presidential nomination convention.

The DNC could not immediately be reached for comment.

The suit was filed by state Sen. Steven Geller, an attorney for Greenspoon Marder in Fort Lauderdale; Barbara Effman, president of the Democratic Club in Broward County; and Percy Johnson, a convention delegate.

The suit alleges that the committee failed to "treat equally all similarly situated states and Democratic voters" when it decided not to seat Florida delegates because the state moved up its primary date against party rules. The suit also claims the committee's actions violated "due process" because the sanctions against Florida "flow from a constitutionally inadequate process that implements DNC rules in an arbitrary manner."

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., won the Florida Democratic primary on Jan. 29 in a race where the candidates had agreed not to campaign here, but she now lags Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the delegate count. The state has 210 delegates.

[bluestateguy]

1. A lawsuit: How uniquely American

nt

[Larkspur]

2. And the previous lawsuits were tossed because the Democratic party has the right

to determine its nominating process. It's party rules, not state or federal rules that govern the Party's process and that is why courts rule in favor of the political party in these kinds of lawsuits.

[TexasObserver]

3. The party leadership has to gut it up and give Hillary the beatdown she has earned.

She's got it coming, and the DNC needs administer it. Every day the message needs to go out to Camp Clinton: You're in a hole and you're digging yourself deeper!

[dougkeenan]

9. "gut up" and not "man up"

I'm glad you phrased it the way you did

[TexasObserver]

11. "man up" is a term I never use

If you have to say it, you're already not doing it.

"Gut it up" is old school, and I much prefer it. "Man Up" is so pretentious. It's whistling through the graveyard, a tonic taken to shore up sagging confidence.

Gut it up, on the other hand, means STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND JUST DO IT.

[seafan]

4. This, on the heels of the reported refusal of the VP slot to go to Hillary Clinton. Coincidence??

OBAMA SAID NO-The Nightmare Ticket Is Dead, May 22, 2008



Now, Clinton is going into full destructive mode, it seems.

Scorched earth, here we come.

[PoliticalAmazon]

6. Fits her bitter and vindictive m.o. GOD, I have compassion for Bill Clinton now. n/t

[Barack_America]

5. Does this mean that a certain candidate expects to be unhappy with the RBC's ruling?

Shades of Nevada?

:shrug:

[PoliticalAmazon]

10. BINGO. n/t

[me b zola]

7. They're suing the wrong people

If anyone is seriously upset by FL & MI's primaries not counting, they should be suing the people responsible for intentionally moving their primary date in clear violation of the rules while they were being repeatedly warned of the consequences and plead with to not take this route.

But of course, this is not about protecting voter's rights, this is about subverting the election process.

[hokies4ever]

8. When will they learn?

Party delegations aren't guaranteed by the Constitution. Didn't George Washington even warn us to not develop political parties?

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

12. Thats the same Geller in THIS video mocking the primary date problem:

he laughed and mocked his own "amendment" to set the primary back to the
correct date.

Those poor Florida Democrats
by kos
Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 05:05:00 PM PDT

To hear the Clinton campaign and Florida Democrats tell it, they were innocent bystanders to their state's GOP in deciding to move their election date up prior to their sanctioned slot in the calendar.

The reality is much different:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpHuQi17EaE

That's the Florida Senate Democratic minority leader Steven Geller overtly pretending to object to the new calendar, laughing about it the whole time.

Geller: The chair of the Democratic National Committee has of coursed threatened that if we move the primary to before the first Tuesday in February that they will sanction us at the Democratic National Convention. So the Democratic leader and the Democratic leader pro-tem are jointly making this motion, which we will duly show to them later, that we tried not to have the election before the first Tuesday in March.

Chair: And so Sen. Geller are you urging a negative vote or would you like us to pass this vote?

Geller : Oh no sir, we really really want this, don't we senator?

Chair: I understand. Please don't throw me into the bramble bush.

They were mocking the DNC's calendar and its rules from the beginning. This wasn't a Democratic Party dragged along by a malicious GOP. Florida Democrats wanted their state earlier in the calendar.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/1/153956/6000/791/488388

[phrigndumass]

14. "This video has been removed by the user"

hmmmmmm ....

I remember seeing the video before, though. What you said took place actually did take place.

[seafan]

13. Steve Geller met privately with Clinton yesterday; today, he's suing the DNC, which Clinton wants.

Steve Geller, still claiming he's an uncommitted superdelegate, has probably been bought off. This lawsuit is the beginning of Hillary Clinton's nuclear option to steal the nomination from Barack Obama.

Steve Geller meets with Hillary Clinton

> Posted by Linda Kleindienst at 5:22 PM
May 21, 2008


State Sen. Steve Geller was asked to attend a private meeting with Hillary Clinton this afternoon after her Broward campaign speech. Still an undeclared super delegate, the Senate Democratic Leader from Cooper City was expecting a full court press to win him over to the Clinton camp.

Surprisingly, he said he has not received the same invite from Barack Obama.

“If I had gotten an invitation, I certainly would have gone,” he said.

Geller tomorrow has scheduled a press conference at his law office to announce a “significant development expected to have national impact.”

No, he is not announcing his endorsement in the presidential race. And he probably won’t for some time.

This lawsuit is the 'significant development.'


Hillary Clinton's nuclear option.