Four Michigan Dems Propose Compromise on Seating Delegation

By Marie Horrigan, CQ Staff Tue Apr 29, 5:33 PM ET

A negotiating team of top Michigan Democrats has come forward with a compromise plan to seat the state's delegation to the national convention that would give New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a slight advantage in the delegate count over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

The proposal comes about four months after the Democratic National Committee stripped Michigan of all its delegates because the state party advanced the date of its primary in violation of Democratic National Committee rules.

The authors of the plan, sent to Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer on Tuesday, said it essentially "splits the difference between the 73/55 position of the Clinton campaign and the 64/64 position of the Obama campaign."

It would give Clinton 69 delegates to Obama's 59, a 10-delegate advantage for Clinton that would be less than if the allocation was based entirely on the Jan. 15 primary, in which she won 55 percent of the popular vote. While Clinton won the primary, "uncommitted," the option selected by supporters of candidates not on the ballot, received 40 percent of the vote. If the state's 128 delegates were allocated according to those results, Clinton would receive 73 delegates and the "uncommitted" line, the majority of which likely would go to Obama, would receive 55 delegates. If the delegates were divided evenly each candidate would receive 64 delegates.

The four parties to the letter -- Sen. Carl Levin, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and DNC member Debbie Dingell -- acknowledged that fashioning a compromise was complicated by the fact that Clinton was the only major party candidate left on the ballot for the Jan. 15 primary. Most other candidates, including Obama, had removed their name to honor the DNC's sanction of the state.

In the letter, the four Michigan Democrats noted that none of them has endorsed a Democrat in the presidential contest. "Our focus is to ensure that Michigan's delegation to the Democratic National Convention in August is seated with full voting rights, and that the nominating process is reformed for future elections," the letter said.

Any plan must be approved by all parties: the Clinton and Obama campaigns, the DNC and the state party. The DNC did not have any comment on the letter or the proposed plan, which would not penalize Michigan for violating the national party's rules, but DNC Chairman Howard Dean has said that the states should face some form of penalties but has not been specific. The Michigan Democratic party said it is studying the proposal.

Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said the letter "makes clear that the Michigan primary, where Senator Obama's name did not appear on the ballot and the candidates did not campaign, should not be the basis for how the Michigan delegation is seated." He added, "We look forward to working with Michigan Democrats and the DNC to find a solution."

The Clinton campaign has not yet issued a response.

Despite ongoing negotiations between the parties, no resolution has yet been found either in Michigan or in Florida, the other state penalized by the DNC for moving up its primary. Challenges are pending from both states against the DNC's decision. The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Convention has set a meeting for Saturday, May 31, to consider these challenges, but the DNC did not have any comment on the letter to Brewer on Tuesday.

The letter said the plan's proponents did not expect either candidate to explicitly embrace the plan, but called on the DNC to adopt it and the candidates to accept it "because it is fair and because it would resolve an impasse with which each passing day hurts our chances of carrying Michigan and winning the presidency."

Democratic leaders in Michigan and Florida argue that the DNC's presidential nominating system is unfair because it allows some states to hold contests ahead of the Feb. 5 cut-off it imposed but penalizes others.

"We see no justification for seating Michigan's delegates with anything less than full voting rights," the Michigan Democratic leaders said in their letter. Penalizing Michigan but not New Hampshire -- which held its primary on Jan. 8 -- "will hurt the party's chances of carrying Michigan in November."

Clinton's win on April 22 in Pennsylvania's presidential primary pushed her closer to Obama in the delegate count and brought the undecided status of delegates for Michigan and Florida back to the forefront.