This time, they’re proposing splitting the existing delegation with a slight advantage to Clinton:
(CNN) — Michigan’s Democrats have released another new proposal yesterday in their quest to ensure their state will be represented at this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Sen. Carl Levin, Democratic National Committee Member Debbie Dingell and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger – the working group that has been meeting to try to end the impasse — sent a letter to state party chair Mark Brewer Tuesday in which they urged the Democratic National Committee to seat the Michigan delegation under a formula that would give a 10-delegate edge to Hillary Clinton.
Clinton was the only major candidate to appear on the ballot in the state’s January contest, which she won with 55 percent of the vote. No delegates were awarded because of national party penalties on Michigan Democrats for moving up their primary date. Forty percent of January’s primary voters chose the “uncommitted” option on the ballot; a majority of those “uncommitted” delegates are backing Barack Obama.
Clinton’s campaign has said that the results of the January vote – which would give her an 18-delegate edge, 73-55 – should count. Obama’s campaign had said the delegates should be split evenly, 64-64.
DNC member Joel Ferguson has called for a plan that would give half a vote to each pledged delegate and a full vote to each superdelegate. The committee said Tuesday they opposed this plan. Under their proposal, which splits the difference between the Obama and Clinton proposals, the state’s 128 pledged delegates would be split 69-59, with the majority going to Hillary Clinton.
It seems unlikely that the Obama camp will agree to this plan, but, in the end, I don’t see the harm that they would suffer if they did.
As I noted after Pennsylvania, at this point neither candidate is going to have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination and the odds that Hillary Clinton will come anywhere close to surpassing Obama in pledged delegates are, thanks to the existing rules about delegate allocation, pretty much insurmountable. Given that, a ten delegate net pickup for Clinton wouldn’t really amount to a game-changer, and just might be the best way to avoid a messy fight in August.
