Obama Violated Pledge ONE DAY After Making it!
Barack Obama held an impromptu news conference after a Tampa fundraiser
Sunday.
By WILLIAM MARCH and ELAINE SILVESTRINI The Tampa Tribune
Published: September 30, 2007
TAMPA - Barack Obama hinted during a Tampa fundraiser Sunday that if
he's the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, he'll seat a
Florida delegation at the party's national convention, despite national
party sanctions prohibiting it.
Obama also appeared to violate a pledge he and the other leading
candidates took by holding a brief news conference outside the
fundraiser. That was less than a day after the pledge took effect
Saturday, and Obama is the first Democratic presidential candidate to
visit Florida since then.
Obama and others have pledged not to campaign in Florida until the Jan.
29 primary except for fundraising, which is what he was doing in Tampa.
But after the fundraiser at the Hyde Park home of Tom and Linda Scarritt,
Obama crossed the street to take half a dozen questions from reporters
waiting there.
The pledge covers anything referred to in Democratic National Committee
rules as "campaigning," and those include "holding news conferences."
Obama seemed unaware the pledge he signed prohibits news conferences.
Asked whether he was violating it, he said, "I was just doing you guys a
favor. … If that's the case, then we won't do it again."
Frank Sanchez, a Tampa Obama supporter who helped organize the
fundraiser, said the encounter illustrates the awkward situation the
candidates have been put in by the controversy over the state's Jan. 29
presidential primary.
That date - earlier than allowed by rules of both major political
parties - has led to a threat of sanctions against both Florida
Republicans and Democrats, and to the Democrats' boycott pledge.
"This wasn't planned," Sanchez said of the brief press availability. "He
was going to the car, and he just went across the street for a moment."
According to Sanchez and Tom Scarritt, Obama was asked during the event
about making sure Floridians have a role in the nomination, despite the
DNC sanctions and the pledge. Scarritt said Obama responded that he'll
"do what's right by Florida voters."
The DNC has threatened to refuse to seat a Florida convention delegation
because of the too-early primary, which the Florida Legislature decided
on last spring. But if a candidate amasses enough delegates before the
primary to ensure the nomination, that candidate would take control of
the convention, including the power to seat a delegation.
State Democrats are considering asking all candidates to pledge they
would seat the state's delegation.
The boycott pledge was demanded by the four states - Iowa, New
Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina - which are allowed to hold
primaries before Feb. 5.