Florida Democrats plead for a primary campaign

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/florida_democrats_plead_for_a.html

Florida Democrats plead for a primary campaign

by Mark Silva

All the attention on Florida's presidential primary election on Tuesday is focused on the Republicans, because the Democrats agreed to forgo campaigning here when the Democratic National Committee penalized Florida for staging an early primary, with the national party vowing not to count Florida's delegates at the Democratic convention in Denver.

But today, the highest-ranking Democratic state official in Florida is calling on the party to reconsider in the final days of a heated Republican campaign in the Sunshine State.She plans a lunch-hour press conference to show a letter she will send to the DNC urging the party to permit a campaign here in the closing days of a heated Republican primary contest.

Polling has long portrayed, and still portrays, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York as favored among Florida's Democrats. With the prospect of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois potentially winning South Carolina's Democratic primary on Saturday, Clinton probably would like nothing more than quick three-day swing through Florida to highlight a win here and counter the Obama factor heading in to Super Tuesday's multi-state contest on Feb. 5.

"She has a base down here,'' says Dario Moreno, a political scientist at Florida International University in Miami. It's solid enough to withstand an Obama victory in the Palmetto State, he says, and solid enough to serve her well in November, should she become party's nominee.

My first thought is they'll say no...but I am not wired into the HQ thinking.

Anyone have a clue?