Black Leader Urges Pro-Hillary Delegate Move

Amanda Carpenter | February 12, 2008 8:10 PM

While Obama is favored to sweep primary contests tonight, a prominent black leader is making the case to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the Democratic nominating convention---a move likely to favor Hillary Clinton.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond wrote a letter to DNC head Howard Dean that said refusing to seat Florida and Michigan delegates would disenfranchise voters and could be reminiscent of a "sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries."

As you may remember, the DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates because they moved up their primaries. Clinton chose to defy the rules and stay on the ballot in Michigan. Clinton won although her margin was tempered by the 40 percent of Michigan Democratic voters who voted "uncommitted" against her. Both Clinton and Obama were on the Florida ballot, but neither campaigned in the Sunshine State. When Clinton won the majority of the ballots there, she declared victory.

Oddly enough, Bond was suspected of writing an anti-Hillary email earlier today