January 15, 2008

Team Obama: Michigan’s Meaningless

Emailed a few minutes ago from Bill Burton to reporters with the subject line, “Something to think about as returns come in from Michigan” …

TO: Interested Parties
FR: The Obama Campaign
RE: Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary

Because Michigan violated DNC rules by placing its Presidential
Primary on January15th, the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee ruled that
the Michigan Democratic Party could not use the results of the January
15 Presidential Primary to allocate delegates to the 2008 Democratic
National Convention. In other words, no delegates are at stake today in
the Michigan Democratic Primary.

All of the Democratic presidential candidates publicly pledged not
to campaign in Michigan, none have visited the state, opened offices,
hired staff or communicated with voters through television, mail,
phones or otherwise. In addition, four Democratic presidential
candidates, Obama, Edwards, Richardson and Biden withdrew their names
from the Primary ballot in order to avoid participating in the Michigan
Primary. Clinton did not withdraw her name even though she publicly
committed to not participate in the Primary. Clinton, Dodd, Gravel and
Kucinich are the only candidates on the ballot today. The Obama
Campaign is not participating in the Primary and has not instructed
supporters in Michigan whether or how to vote.

Therefore the results of the primary tonight have no bearing on the Democratic nomination contest.

Florida, whose primary was scheduled for January 29th, is just like
Michigan – the DNC applied full sanctions for setting an early
primary date and there are no delegates are at stake. As with Michigan,
all of the Democratic presidential candidates signed a pledge to not
campaign in Florida. Although Senator Obama did not remove his name
from the Florida Primary ballot because Florida law did not allow him
to do so, Senator Obama is firm in his commitment to neither
participate nor campaign in the Florida Primary and its outcome has no
bearing on the nomination contest. We raise Florida today because
Senator Clinton has scheduled a fundraiser in Florida on Jan. 27th, and
there are signs – despite Senator Clinton’s public pledge
to the contrary – that she may be planning to campaign in the
state – inquiring about large venues and increased organizing
activity – ahead of the Florida primary.

Our position and the position of the DNC is clear – neither
the Florida nor Michigan primaries are playing any role in deciding the
Democratic nominee and we are not campaigning in either state.

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