Word: geller
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...earlier primary, but the RNC hasn't demanded that Florida's G.O.P. reschedule it for a later date.) As Dean warned earlier this summer, if Florida's Democrats insist on holding their primary in January, it "essentially won't count." To which Florida's Senate Democratic minority leader Steve Geller says, "I question whether Howard Dean is working for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party...
...Geller's confusion is understandable for a number of reasons. Florida Democrats had, and have, little choice but to go along with the state's decision to leapfrog its primary from March to the front of the pack in January. First, they didn't have the votes to block it: Florida's legislature is controlled by the G.O.P., as is its Governor's mansion. More important, most Floridians want their primary moved up: the 2000 debacle may have subjected them to national ridicule, but it revealed the peninsula's new bellwether muscle - and they feel they deserve to flex...
...Telling them they don't deserve it isn't going to endear the Democratic Party to a state that is regularly referred to these days as the new California. In Florida, as Geller notes, national elections are often "poised on the edge of a razor blade. They can go either way." As a result, Florida's Democrats are dumbfounded that Dean and the DNC would put the state's 27 electoral votes at risk, not only by muffling its say in the Democratic nominating process - top Democratic candidates will be less likely to stump in Florida if the DNC sanctions...
...Meanwhile, Florida's Democrats are formulating a response - and don't bet on them caving in to the DNC. For one thing, the costs and logistics of arranging a separate, later primary election look prohibitive. More crucially, state party leaders like Geller simply believe Dean and the DNC are out of line. Florida's Democratic Senator, Bill Nelson, is threatening legal action to test whether poltiical parties actually have the kind of authority the DNC is trying to assert. And Geller says he even plans to urge Democratic donors in Florida, one of the country's most lucrative sources...
...Geller also notes that many students who live on the Quad—including himself—appreciate the more residential and “homey” lifestyle it provides, suggesting the same may not be true of the Allston Houses which would be in the midst of the rest of the planned development in the area...