Blame New Hampshire

New Hampshire put Michigan in a bad position, MI won’t back down on “fairness” issue

Sen. Carl Levin (MI), speaking before the Democratic bylaws committee, went over the history of the Democratic primary conflict.  The history has a Michigan slant, but it is a good argument to fully seat Michigan at the Democratic Convention.  He contends that the reason Michigan should NOT be penalized is because they only broke the rules after the Democratic bylaws committee broke their promise to disrupt this process of Iowa and New Hampshire having too much power.

As Levin recalls, after promising to allow multiple states to caucus between Iowa and New Hampshire, it was New Hampshire that applied for and the DNC that approved a waiver to move to an earlier date.  Michigan argues that when the DNC broke the rules on sequence, they opened the door for states to do exactly what Michigan did.   My guess is that Michigan will be fully seated because it would be disastrous to the purpose of “unity” if they were held out.   Michigan also makes a better case for their full seating than the opposition, led by Harold Ickes, does.

Michigan should be represented at the delegate convention, but…

Hillary Clinton was quoted by David Bonior as saying that the “Michigan primary would not count” and that she would only stay on the ballot so as not to offend the voters of Michigan. Between the fairness issue, the flawed primary, broken rules and the candidates showing clear understanding that Michigan would NOT count, there is no way that the DNC could or should overwrite Michigan’s “unity” proposal.  To intervene in Michigan’s process or penalize them when history says the DNC is as much to blame for the chaos, would not be well received by voters across the country.

Fred Soto is an Attorney and Entrepreneur from the Silicon Valley.
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