Friday, August 31, 2007

Looking for Pledges

DNC Chair Howard Dean and the Iowa/New Hampshire/Nevada/South Carolina Dem Parties offered up a pledge today to try to end this jumping around craziness of "who goes when" in the prez nominating process. Here's the pledge:

As of 4:48pm, three candidates have signed on (Richardson, Biden and Dodd)...still waiting on the top three ranked candidates to weigh in... Will they?


Four State Pledge Letter 2008
Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina
August 31, 2007

WHEREAS, Over a year ago, the Democratic National Committee established a 2008 nominating calendar;

WHEREAS, this calendar honors the racial, ethnic, economic and geographic diversity of our party and our country;

WHEREAS, the DNC also honored the traditional role of retail politics early in the nominating process, to insure that money alone will not determine our presidential nominee;

WHEREAS, it is the desire of Presidential campaigns, the DNC, the states and the American people to bring finality, predictability and common sense to the nominating calendar.

THEREFORE, I _______________, Democratic Candidate for President, pledge I shall not campaign or participate in any state which schedules a presidential election primary or caucus before Feb. 5, 2008, except for the states of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina, as “campaigning” is defined by rules and regulations of the DNC.


___________________________ __________
John/Jane Doe, Doe for President DATE

5 comments:

Alliegirl said...

Good grief did you read the letter sent to the candidates from the Governor of Michigan?
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Today, the Michigan Legislature passed legislation with strong bipartisan support that will establish Michigan's presidential primary on January 15. I am writing to let you know that I will sign that bill into law when it lands on my desk and to encourage you to campaign actively and vigorously in Michigan.
I understand that Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina are circulating a letter to presidential candidates that asks them to sign a pledge not to campaign in any state that gives its voters a real voice in the nominating process by moving its primary into the month of January. I urge you not to sign this pledge and instead to come to Michigan and engage our citizens in a serious dialogue on the critical federal issues that affect their lives - issues like the manufacturing crisis, the cost of health care, and unfair trade policies. These are issues that the next president must resolve and that challenge Michigan like no other state. I hope you will recognize that these issues facing the people of Michigan are far more important than the politics of the parties' respective nominating contests.

I strongly urge you not to sign any pledge that would prevent you from campaigning in Michigan, and a bipartisan group of political leaders in our state will soon make that same appeal. When you campaign here, you will see that while we differ on matters of policy, Michigan's Democrats and Republicans are united in our desire to ensure that our citizens have the strong voice they deserve as the nation selects its next president.

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Totally have a theory why she's foaming at the mouth to get them candidating up there but since I haven't had enough coffee this morning to make my brain go off on that rant....I'll just say.......
Those top 3 Dems will NOT sign.

Fl. and MI. are two big swing states that combined outweigh IA, NH, NV & SC by 20 or so electorals (should google that fact before I quote it...but oh well) So they've got some strong voting power between the two and if I were a candidate given the invitation to court their voters now...I sure would.
But after I read a different blog where someone stated that the "Ignorant Iowa Hayseeds" should let Michigan have a go at it first and that this could cause a "civil war" within the Democratic Party, being the Republican Iowa Hayseed that I am makes me say...SIGN IT!

Anonymous said...

Edwards signed the pledge today. Hillary and Obama then followed suit. Thank you democrats for signing it.

Anonymous said...

Hillary Clinton was the last of the top tier Democrats to pledge today. The Des Moines Register did not indicate if she actually signed the pledge.

Anonymous said...

Lets not forget that Hillary's deputy campaign manager advised her to skip Iowa last May and Bill Clinton did bypass Iowa in 1992 during his first presidential bid.

Anonymous said...

Why was Hillary the last of the leading Democrats to agree to the DNC pledge not to campaign in Florida? Well, she is significantly ahead in recent polls in Florida and was hoping to sweep all of the Florida delegates prior to Super Tuesday (Feb. 5th). Hillary did not sign out of conviction but was forced by Barack Obama and John Edwards signing the pledge in advance of Clinton.