High-Profile Attorney Joins Democrat Fight For Delegates

By BILLY HOUSE The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 29, 2007

WASHINGTON - Kendall Coffey, the former U.S. attorney for South Florida known for high-profile cases and some controversy, is preparing the lawsuit for Florida Democrats against their national party in the squabble over the state's primary date.

The legal papers are expected to be filed in federal court in Florida on Wednesday or Thursday, though which city has not been decided, said Bryan Gulley, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Although Nelson and other top state Democrats are involved, the linchpin of the lawsuit will be its assertions that the state's Democratic voters cannot be disenfranchised from a process so integral to selecting a president.

One Person, One Vote

Some of those arguments will be based on a string of Supreme Court decisions known as the "White Primary" cases, beginning in the 1920s out of Texas, said Columbia University School of Law professor Nathaniel Persily, one of the legal experts who has been consulted by Coffey.

Those cases ultimately held by midcentury that black voters could not constitutionally be prohibited from voting in the state's Democratic primaries. The reason: The Texas primary was an integral part of the general electoral process.

"The lawsuit we're intending to file next week won't be about the rules of a political party," Nelson said in a statement released Friday. "It'll be about the right of every person to have access to the ballot box, and to have their vote count. It'll be about the fundamental concept of one person, one vote."

Nelson spokesman Gulley would not provide many other details of the case's thrust, acknowledging some decisions on its direction "are not totally nailed down yet." Also not finalized is how many rank-and-file state Democrats might join Nelson and U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar in the lawsuit.

But the emphasis is to be on voters who would be potentially harmed - not the state Democratic Party, its officials, or elected officeholders.

Coffey, who Gulley said is working on the case for free, did not return a telephone call seeking more details.

Federal Job Ended Badly

He has been involved in a number of high-profile cases, including work for the family who fought to keep Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy involved in a 2000 international custody battle, in the United States. A former U.S. attorney under President Clinton and a legal commentator on national news, Coffey also was involved in the 2000 presidential recount litigation. He lost his U.S. attorney job after biting a stripper.

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean has said the national party's sanctions against state Democrats - including a refusal to seat a Florida delegation at the Democratic National Convention - will stand unless Florida's Democratic Party changes plans to choose its national convention delegates based on the state's Jan. 29 presidential primary, which the national party says is too early.

Florida's Democrats last month were found in noncompliance by the DNC's rules committee and have until today to submit a revised delegate selection plan or face the sanctions. But they say they're sticking with the primary, and Nelson has said he and others will sue.

Persily, the Columbia elections law expert, acknowledged there have been several Supreme Court decisions that have protected the autonomy of national political parties to set their own rules. "I don't want to suggest otherwise," he said. "If the state party was suing the national party, this would be a frivolous case."

But he said that's not what's happening. And he thinks the White Primary cases do give Florida Democrats some hope.

"I don't think there has been this particular set of facts, which is voters are suing because they feel the national party and their state have together erected a system which they feel have effectively drained their primary vote of all meaning," Persily said.

"It's about representing voters who say: We are on the receiving end of a fight between the national party and the state of Florida, and we shouldn't lose our right to vote," he said.

"And while it is true you want to get a victory," Persily said of the lawsuit, "it's also a way of shaming a [political] party to do what is right."

Reporter Billy House can be reached at (202) 662-7673 or bhouse@tampatrib.com.