Ted Deutch Campaigning to Get Dem Candidates Here

Yesterday, I reported on State Senator Ted Deutch's letter to the four early state Democratic Party Chairs asking them to release our candidates from the Pledge not to campaign in Florida once the South Carolina Primary is over on Saturday.

Today there is word of a grassroots campaign by Senator Deutch to persuade the four early state chairs to release the candidates from the Pledge after South Carolina. This is from an email sent from Senator Deutch:

My Fellow Democrats -

Each one of you already knows how important it is for Florida Democrats to cast their votes on January 29th. The eyes of the world will be on Florida, and the national media will report that a strong Democratic turnout bodes well for our Democratic nominee here in November. But wouldn't a two-day burst of campaigning help generate even more excitement before this important primary election?...

Please ... reach out to the party officials at the addresses below to remind them that after South Carolina , the pledge should end. Their OK will give us two days of campaigning, two days to drive voter turnout in the largest and most diverse swing state, and two days to remind all Floridians how important it is to elect a Democrat in November.

Senator Deutch goes on to give the email addresses of the parties of the four early primary states. As a public service, here they are:

New Hampshire Democratic Party
office@nhdp.org
press@nhdp.org

Nevada Democratic Party
jderby9@gmail.com
tbrock@nvdems.com

Iowa Democratic Party
mmilligan@iowademoc rats.org
iadem@iowademocrats.org

South Carolina Democratic Party
jwerner@scdp.org
info@scdp.org

Senator Deutch closes his letter as follows:

Please help make this effort a grassroots success.
Your leadership in asking others to help is vital to bringing us the campaign rallies which will generate the record turnout that this election should produce!

Many thanks,

Ted Deutch

SENATOR TED DEUTCH
FLORIDA STATE SENATE
30th District
15340 Jog Road, Suite 201
Delray Beach, Florida 33446-2170

So there you have it. This is your chance to let the Democratic parties in the four early states know how you feel about the no campaign pledge. And if you want to drop Senator Ted Deutch a line to thank him for his efforts on our behalf, you can do so here:

senatorteddeutch@yahoo.com

Enjoy!

Will the Florida No Campaign Pledge Be Lifted (or Broken)?

cn1044 has a diary up on DailyKos titled Florida might be getting interesting detailing how Senator Barack Obama has purchased national cable ads that are now running in Florida. Senator Hillary Clinton's campaign calls this

a clear and blatant violation of the early state pledge that Sen. Obama and the other leading Democratic candidates signed last year.

Meanwhile, Florida State Senator Ted Deutch has written a letter to the four early state Democratic Party Chairs asking them to release the leading Democratic candidates from their pledge not to campaign in Florida.

Could Florida become more relevant all of a sudden? And what can all this mean?



On Thursday, Florida State Senator Ted Deutch sent a letter to the Democratic Party Chairs of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. The letter asks the Chairs of the four early states to release the Democratic candidates from their pledge not to campaign in Florida before February 5th. Florida's primary is scheduled for January 29th, 3 days after the last of the four early primaries in South Carolina on the 26th. Senator Deutch's letter states

On January 26th when the polls close in South Carolina, the goals you established in September when you asked the candidates to sign the Pledge will have been fully satisfied, and there will be no compelling reason for you to ask the candidates to continue to abide by the Pledge.

For five months, the candidates will have concentrated their attention on your four states. Allow Florida to have two days.

No word yet if Senator Deutch has received any responses from the four state party chairs.

Today, the St. Petersburg Times Buzz Blog is reporting here that the Clinton campaign is criticizing the Obama campaign because

CNN viewers in Florida today are seeing a Barack Obama campaign ad, which is part of a national cable TV buy.

The Clinton campaign is quoted as saying

Sen. Obama’s flagrant disregard for the pledge that he signed is disturbing and calls the integrity of the pledge into question.

Obama's campaign tell the Times:

We asked the cable channels if we could prevent the ad from airing in Florida and we were told that would be impossible.

Meanwhile, Politico.com's Ben Smith is reporting this:

“Both national cable networks told us it would be impossible for us to run advertising nationally that excluded only Florida. For that reason we consulted with the South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler who told us unequivocally she did not consider this to be in violation of pledge made to the early states,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton.

So, is this a sign that the early states might look favorably upon Senator Deutch's request to release the candidates from the pledge after South Carolina's primary? Will the Clinton campaign consider the pledge broken and launch their own national cable ads that will air in Florida?

Stay tuned.

Update:

Politico is now reporting this form Clinton campaign spokesperson Mo Elleithee:

“We have honored the pledge in every way possible,” Elleithee said. “Now … we’re going to review all the options that are available to us moving forward.”