NY Gov. Paterson Rejects Clinton approach to Counting Michigan & Florida

By Tom Precious - the Buffalo News

In a case of seriously bad timing for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the top Democrat in New York on Thursday dismissed her argument that primary votes in Florida and Michigan should be counted in the race for the party's presidential nomination. Gov. David A. Paterson, who has been the New York senator's most prominent Democratic backer in the state, said, "We are starting to see a little desperation on the part of a woman who I supported and I'll support until whatever time she makes a determination." Paterson's comments are sure to add fuel to Democratic efforts to get Clinton to abandon her campaign and not continue it right up to the party's nominating convention in late August as she has threatened to do. Paterson said he attended the Democratic National Committee meeting last year when it was decided that the Michigan and Florida contests would not be counted if the states moved up their primary dates before the traditional Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. "I didn't agree with it at the time. However, right now as we come to a reconciliation, candidates have to be careful [that] in their zeal to try to win . . . they're not starting to trample on a process," Paterson said without mentioning Clinton by name. "Everybody agreed to the process at the time."

Paterson, appearing on a call-in show on an Albany radio station, also questioned Clinton's demands that her primary performances in Florida and Michigan be counted as victories for her. In Michigan, he noted, the other Democrats, including Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, took their names off the ballot, while Clinton did not, leaving her unopposed.

The governor poked holes in Clinton's argument that she leads in the popular vote if the Florida and Michigan primary votes are counted. He said her math assumes that she gets 300,000 extra votes from her Florida showing and 200,000 votes in Michigan.

"You have to rule out the undecideds in Michigan. You have to assume she won 100 percent to nothing in Michigan. I don't think anybody in their right mind would do that, nor would they see it as a civil rights issue," Paterson said in questioning Clinton's comparison of her fight in Florida and Michigan to the fight for civil rights.

A Clinton campaign spokesman declined to comment.

Obama supporters welcomed the Paterson move. "Clearly, both of us, even though we're on different sides, have come to the same conclusion in terms of what's good for the party, and more importantly, what's good for the country," said State Sen. Bill Perkins, D-Harlem, chairman of Obama's New York campaign.