The Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet Saturday to determine the delegate status of Florida and Michigan. These two states violated DNC 'Delegate Selection Rule 11 a', which dictates the timing of primaries.

A lesser known passage is 'Rule 20 - Section C 1. b'. This rule may force Barack Obama to forfeit his Florida delegates. This section states:

"A presidential candidate who campaigns in a state where the state party is in violation of the timing provisions of these rules, or where a primary or caucus is set by a state's government on a date that violates the timing provisions of these rules, may not receive pledged delegates or delegate votes from that state."

The Hillary Clinton Campaign claims that in January 2008, Barack Obama broke this rule by airing an ad that potentially reached 92% of all Florida TV households. The Clinton Campaign argues that the decision to run these ads that aired on CNN was made knowing that the Florida market was included.

The Obama Campaign defends the ad, stating that it consulted and received approval from DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee member Carol Fowler before airing the ad. Fowler -- an Obama supporter -- however, is not the sole authority in deciding whether or not the ad's airing violated party rules. The Committee in whole should decide if Obama should forfeit the delegates reinstated in the May 31 meeting. The Rules and Bylaws Committee is obligated to follow the regulation as stated in Rule 19 Section B:

"The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee shall implement the Delegate Selection Rules in a manner consistent with these rules."

The DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee is open to the public. All the seats were taken within minutes after they were made available. The meeting, which will take place at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel at 9:30 eastern, can also be seen live on C-SPAN and CNN.

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Related Links:

DNC: pdf: Delegate Selection Rules
DNC: May 31 Rules and Bylaws Meeting Schedule
Washington Post: Clinton Backers Plan Rules and Bylaws Protest
NPR: Who's Who on the Rules and Bylaws Committee

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