Clinton wins Florida primary, but gets no delegates
Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Florida Democratic primary Tuesday night, an event that drew no campaigning by any of her presidential rivals and awarded no delegates to the winner.
The New York senator, fresh off her lopsided loss to Barack Obama in last weekend’s South Carolina primary, arranged a rally in the state as the polls were closing, an evident attempt to gain campaign momentum.
She and Obama collide next week in a coast-to-coast competition for delegates across 22 states.
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Last year, the national party stripped Florida of its delegates as punishment for moving its primary ahead of Feb. 5 and the candidates pledged to bypass the state. At stake Tuesday were 185 delegates.
Still, Clinton winked at that pledge, holding two closed fundraisers in recent days and scheduling a rally with supporters after the polls closed in Florida.
It is expected that the eventual nominee will try to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan, reversing the Democratic National Committee’s punishment.
“I will try to persuade my delegates to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida,” said Clinton. “Democrats have to win Michigan and have to try to win Florida and I intend to do that. The people of Florida deserve to be represented in the process of picking a candidate for president of the United States.”
Michigan also violated party rules by moving its primary to Jan. 15, and party leaders voted to strip the state of its 156 delegates as punishment.
Democrats participated in Tuesday’s primary, driven to vote in part by ballot initiatives on property tax relief and gambling in some counties.
Exit polls of Florida Democrats conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks showed that the economy was the most important issue facing the country. Half of Democrats called the economy poor, compared to only about one in seven Republican primary voters.
Both parties’ electorates were older than in any other presidential contest this year. A third or more in each primary were at least 65 years old. In earlier Democratic contests no more than a quarter were senior citizens.
The Republican winner came away with 57 delegates to the party’s nominating convention as well as momentum leading into the round of 22 primaries on Super Tuesday next week. The Democratic winner got no delegates in Florida but bragging rights and momentum from the fourth largest state.
Both state parties were punished for violating national party rules by holding a primary in January. Republicans lost half their delegates. Democrats were left with none.
Both parties, however, expect the prospective nominees to seat all their delegates at the nominating conventions this summer. Clinton already has promised to seat the Floridians if she is the prospective nominee.
“Those decisions will be made after the nomination, not before,” Obama told reporters Tuesday on a plane from Washington to Kansas. “Obviously, I care a lot about the people in Michigan and a lot about the people in Florida. And I want their votes in the general election. We’ll be actively campaigning for them.”
The results ended a suspenseful four-man Republican race in Florida, a pivotal state that could influence primaries to come.
Giuliani counted on victory in Florida, or at least a strong showing, after making more than 30 campaign trips to the state. He practically became a part-time resident while ignoring earlier primary states.
Romney also devoted much of his campaign spending and time to winning Florida while building an extensive network of staff and volunteers throughout the state
Romney was the default candidate for many Republican voters who found flaws in other contenders. While other campaigns ran short of money, Romney drew on his personal fortune to help pay for a steady stream of television advertisements.
His campaign bought 4,475 television spots in the state, followed by Giuliani with 3,067 and McCain with 470, according to The Nielsen Company, a media research firm.