Democratic National Convention would be a grave
injustice, the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday in a
break with prominent civil rights leaders.
"I firmly believe that changing the rules now, and
seating delegates from Florida and Michigan at this
point would not only violate the Democratic Party's
rules of fairness, but also would be a grave
injustice," Sharpton said in a letter to Democratic
National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
"As former presidential candidates we both know that,
whether we liked them or not, we adhered to the rules
set forth by the Democratic Party to select its
nominee for president."
Sharpton, a black activist and radio talk show host,
sought the presidency in 2004.
NAACP chairman Julian Bond also wrote Dean recently,
taking the opposite position. Bond said failure to
seat the delegates would disenfranchise minority
voters in Florida and Michigan.
Former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairwoman Mary
Frances Berry and former Justice Department official
Roger Wilkins also wrote Dean urging the DNC settle
the issue before the convention for the good of the
party.
Berry — who oversaw the 2001 report that studied the
disputed 2000 Florida election and found thousands of
voters, particularly black voters, were
disenfranchised — said she is also concerned about
disenfranchisement of Michigan and Florida voters,
although she didn't make a recommendation on how the
DNC should resolve the dispute.
The DNC penalized Michigan and Florida for moving
their primaries to earlier dates in violation of party
rules. Both states were stripped of their delegates,
and the party's presidential candidates signed a
pledge not to campaign in either state. Florida lost
all 210 delegates, including its superdelegates;
Michigan, 156.
Since then, waging a hard-fought delegate battle with
Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's
campaign has pushed hard for both states' delegations
to be seated. Clinton won Florida's primary Jan. 29
and Michigan's Jan. 15, but was the only candidate to
appear on the Michigan ballot after the other
candidates removed their names.
Sharpton said he disagreed with those who say minority
voters in Florida and Michigan will be
disenfranchised.
"That claim, if true, should have been made many
months ago before the decision was made to strip these
states of their delegates, and, once the decision was
made, it should have been vigorously objected to and
contested by those who felt it disenfranchised
voters," Sharpton wrote. "To raise that claim now
smacks of politics in its form most raw and undercuts
the moral authority behind such an argument."
The DNC has said it would allow both states to hold a
different contest, probably a caucus, that would
comply with party rules. Either state can also appeal
the penalty to the DNC credentials committee, which
will not meet again until this summer.
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