NAACP Chair Julian Bonds wants Michigan, Florida delegates seated While Sen. Barack Obama was racking up three huge wins last night in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, word broke that NAACP Chairman Julian Bond had sent a letter to the head of the Democratic National Committee asking that the delegates from Michigan and Florida be seated.
Talk about stepping into a messy situation!
Background: The DNC stripped the folks in Florida and Michigan of their delegates because state officials there moved their primaries up before Feb. 5. The DNC agreed to only allow four states – Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada – to vote before that date.
All of the Democratic candidates signed pledges not to campaign in those states, and the top tier candidates – except Sen. Hillary Clinton – removed their names from the ballot in Michigan.
When asked on the campaign trail, each said that the votes in Michigan and Florida were not going to count. When voting commenced, Clinton “won” Michigan and Florida, and proceeded to say that she would fight to have the delegates seated.
She has argued that since she won the states they should be awarded to her, while the Obama campaign has argued that in non-contested races, this is unfair.
Because the nomination fight between the two is so tight, every delegate will count.
My sources tell me that Bond, Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, as well as Wade Henderson, CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, all worked on the letter on Friday (Berry and Henderson both sit on the search committee seeking a new president and CEO of the group to replace Bruce Gordon).
Bond argues that he doesn’t want to see minority voters disenfranchised, but what’s interesting is that CNN exit polls show that nearly 70 percent of blacks didn’t vote for Clinton Michigan, so who is Bond referring to?
I emailed Bond last night, but got no response. I also emailed Berry, as well as called and emailed Henderson, but have not gotten a response.
When I got the tip regarding the letter, I called the Rev. Al Sharpton to hear if he had heard about the letter, and he was stunned when apprised of it.
He said that he was sending his own letter to Dean today, stating that if the DNC tries to seat the Michigan and Florida delegates, he would lead a protest in front of the group’s national headquarters.
My NAACP sources also say that Bond was out of bounds for sending the letter – one called it “disgusting” – because he didn’t apprise the board of it, nor the group’s executive committee.
“At not time did this come before the board, and I don’t believe the board would have sanctioned and allowed this to happen,” one board member told me. “This is a unilateral move and a power play.”
Another board member says they have received calls from across the national from state officers threatening to resign, and regular members saying they will tear up their cards and quit the group.
Does this make Bond concerned? Not according to an interview with Carol Costello of CNN, which will be done on The Situation Room today.
He said he’s heard no discontent from the board, which is meeting this weekend.
Question of the Day: Should NAACP Chairman Julian Bond have waded into Democratic Party politics by wanting to have the Michigan and Florida delegates seated?
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Uncategorized
