Florida Dems "No rooms at the Inn"

Democrats snub the Florida delegation

The party pointedly books no hotel rooms for Floridians at the convention.

National Democrats on Tuesday released their hotel assignments for the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

And which rooms did delegates from all-important Florida get?

The Adam's Mark? Crowne Plaza? Red Lion?

Not quite. Florida got zilch.

The snub is the latest reminder of the Sunshine State's doghouse status for moving up its presidential primary to Jan. 29, violating national party rules.

DNC member, lawyer files suit against state over primary date

A Democratic National Committeeman and a lawyer with long experience in political campaigns sued the state Tuesday, claiming that Gov. Charlie Crist and the Republican-run Legislature violated voting rights and free-speech rights of about 8 million Floridians by moving the presidential primary to Jan. 29.

"The state does not have the right to interfere with the way a church picks its pastor or its priest," said DNC member Jon Ausman. "It does not have the right to interfere in a political party's way that it selects its nominee for president, and it does not have the right to come into your household and say, 'These are the bills you're going to pay, and these are the bills you're not going to pay.'

"That's an unwarranted state intrusion into privacy, political rights of association and political freedom of speech."

Ausman and Alma Gonzalez, special counsel for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, were among a bipartisan group of plaintiffs in the suit against Secretary of State Kurt Browning. They seek a court order to strike the legislative action that moved the primary from early March to Jan. 29, which drew penalties from both political parties for jumping ahead of the Feb. 5 date mandated by the Republican and Democratic National Committees.