Will the Democrats seat the Florida and Michigan delegations at the August Democratic National Convention? Should they, if those states broke the party rules? The Democratic National Committee's 30-member Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet Saturday in a Washington hotel to discuss what to do about Florida and Michigan. Once the exclusive province of political insiders, the Rules and Bylaws Committee has become central to the ongoing battle for the Democratic presidential nomination because the states' 366 delegates, if seated, could affect the balance of the tight contest. Florida has 210 delegates and Michigan has 156 (including superdelegates). According to the Associated Press, Barack Obama currently has 199 more delegates than Hillary Rodham Clinton. CQ Politics answers some of the central questions regarding this weekend's tete-a-tete: 1. What exactly will they be doing on Saturday? Starting at 9:30 a.m., interested parties will get the chance to speak for 15 minutes to the Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) about the delegations to the Denver convention from Michigan and Florida. The list includes Democratic National Committee member Jon Ausman of Tallahassee, Fla., and a representative from the Michigan Democratic Party. They are actually bringing the challenges to the penalties the party imposed. In addition, there will be representatives from the campaigns of Clinton and Obama and representatives for Florida and Michigan Democrats. The committee then will break for a private lunch. At an open afternoon session, members of the committee will discuss the challenges and proceed according to parliamentary rules. Luis Miranda, a spokesman for the DNC, said he expected most of the panel's 30 members to attend the meeting Saturday. Of those members, 13 support Clinton, eight support Obama and other nine haven't committed but two seem to be leaning towards Clinton, according to a Los Angeles Times count. 2. So, these specific challenges from Florida and Michigan, what are they? There are three pending before the committee: - From Ausman: The Florida party charter requires the state's ex officio delegates, known as superdelegates, to be seated regardless of any penalties to the state's pledged delegates. (Eight of the state's superdelegates back Clinton and five support Obama while 13 are uncommitted, according to a tally by the Florida Democratic Party.) - From Ausman: The DNC's delegate selection rules specify that any state that breaks the scheduling rules will be penalized half -- not all -- of their pledged delegates. Florida has 185 pledged delegates and three unpledged add-on delegates. "The reduction should have been 50 percent in the first place and I'm asking that that be imposed," Ausman said. - From the Michigan Democratic Party: A compromise plan to fully seat the state's 128 elected delegates, giving Clinton 69 delegates and 59 for Obama. The party said the plan "splits the difference" between the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which, based on the vote, would give Clinton 73 delegates to 55 for "uncommitted," and Obama's call for an even 64-64 split of the delegates. Earlier this month, Clinton rejected this plan as unfair. The Michigan Democratic Party argues that the state's full delegation should be seated because Michigan Democrats were already punished by the candidates not campaigning in the state. The party said that the lack of participation by the candidates cost the state exposure and influence in the national debate. "Further punishment in the form of no Michigan delegation or a reduced Michigan delegation at the National Convention will only aid the Republicans in their effort to win Michigan in November," the party said in its challenge to the Rules and Bylaws Committee. 3. OK, those are the challengers. Who else is going to be there and what are their positions? - The Democratic National Committee: Tuesday night, the DNC sent a staff analysis of the challenges to the members of the Rules and Bylines Committee. Among other things, the memo examined the possibility of imposing a 50 percent sanction on the states' delegations, either by cutting the total number of delegates in half or by giving each delegate half a vote at the convention. In a statement Wednesday the DNC characterized the memo as "intentionally neutral," but throughout negotiations over the issue, DNC Chairman Howard Dean has maintained the states should face sanctions for breaking the national party's scheduling guidelines. - The state parties: The Michigan Democratic Party has outlined its position in the challenge it will present Saturday. The Florida Democratic Party is hoping the full delegation will be seated but is looking to move forward, said spokesman Alejandro Miyar. "Florida needs to be represented at the convention. ... We're hoping that Saturday brings a resolution so that we can move on ahead and focus on winning in November." Miyar added: "We want our full delegation, considering we've elected our delegates, to be represented. At the same time it's really for the DNC and the campaigns to come to a satisfactory agreement between the three of them." If a full contingent is seated, the distribution of Florida's pledged delegates would be 105 for Clinton, 67 for Obama and 13 for former presidential candidate John Edwards. - The two candidates: The campaigns for both Obama and Clinton reiterated their positions in separate conference calls on Wednesday. Clinton's campaign has called for the delegations to be seated based on the votes in the each state's primary and says the delegations must be seated in full with each delegate granted full voting power. Obama's campaign originally argued the delegates for each state should be split 50-50 since the contests were not supposed to count in the nominating process, but has since amended its position. The campaign now agrees in principle to a solution that would give Clinton the advantage in the delegate count from both states since she won the primaries, but said that the full delegations should not be seated because the states broke the national party rules. "We're hoping that there's some fair resolution here that allows some participation in Denver of the two states, that would resolve, in all likelihood, in some delegate yield to Sen. Clinton," Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said Wednesday. 4. Will Saturday's meeting resolve the issue? Not necessarily. The Clinton campaign's stance -- calling for 100 percent participation for the delegates from Michigan and Florida based solely on the primary votes -- puts it at odds with both the Obama campaign and the DNC. However, in the conference call Wednesday, Clinton advisers remained coy about what the campaign would do if the Rules and Bylaws Committee does not settle the issue in its favor. "Our focus is on Saturday," said Clinton campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson. "And our expectation and our belief is that the DNC will vote on Saturday to seat Florida and Michigan at 100 percent, and that's what we're focused on." Wolfson added: "If there is some other outcome, we can deal with it then." 5. If nothing is resolved Saturday, what is the next step? The issue could go to the Credentials Committee, which is charged with coordinating issues around the selection of delegates and alternates to the convention. The members of the Credentials Committee historically meet in July or early August before the convention. The party has not yet set the date for a meeting, but all parties to the negotiations have said they hope the issue will be resolved Saturday and the Democratic National Convention has refused to speculate on next steps should the negotiations fail on Saturday.
