Howard Dean not welcome in Florida says Orlando's Democratic Mayor Buddy Dyer .

ORLANDO—If national Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean was contemplating spring break in sunny Florida, he might want to reconsider.

"He would not be welcome," says Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, a Democratic former state senator. Not a very friendly stance for the head of a city known for its embrace of tourists seeking suntans and all things Disney.

But Dyer and other Democratic leaders here remain furious at the national party for punishing Florida for scheduling its presidential primary before the February 5 launch of the voting season. Party bosses, trying to avoid an early free-for-all, had decreed that only four states could go ahead of that date: Iowa and New Hampshire, by tradition, and Nevada and South Carolina, in the interest of ethnic and geographic diversity.

Hardball. When Florida, like Michigan, flouted the rule, claiming voters in large and diverse states deserved an early voice more than those in homogenous Iowa and New Hampshire, the national parties got tough. GOP honchos stripped Florida and Michigan Republicans of half their convention delegates. Democratic bosses revoked all their party's Florida and Michigan delegates. But the worst of it, says Bill Robinson, chairman of the Orange County Democrats, has been the pledge by Democratic candidates, under pressure from politicos in the four early-voting states, to boycott Florida and Michigan until after the Florida primary. No campaigning, no ads. "It has been at least as damaging as the delegate stripping," Robinson says. "I get a lot of calls from a lot of angry Democratic voters."

But the campaigns say they will honor their pledge, and the four states don't plan to release them from it. Florida's punishment may have made campaign season easier for Democrats, as they haven't had to spend money or time in a state where it's expensive to campaign. That has played well for Hillary Clinton, who has banked on her name and organization here. She's maintained sizable poll leads, and, after the South Carolina primary, she'll need a victory before February 5. "I don't doubt she'll win," says Democrat Charlie Stuart. "God's on the side of the army with the biggest battalions."

Meanwhile, the primary controversy isn't keeping Howard Dean away. He's scheduled to be in Tallahassee Oct. 9 for a $100-per-person fundraiser. (Suggested amount..not required)

Hillsborough Democratic chairman Mike Suarez burst out laughing at that news Tuesday.

"I'm not too sure that he's the best person to be doing fundraising in Florida at the moment," Suarez said of Dean.

Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller, who on Wednesday labeled Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina “terrorist, rogue states” for coercing Democratic presidential candidates not to campaign in Florida in advance of its Jan. 29 primary, on Thursday announced he will not be attending a Tallahassee fundraiser held by the head terrorist himself, Democratic chairman Howard Dean.


Steve Geller

“He’s welcome in certain, small enclaves of the state,” Geller told the Q. “If you don’t have something nice to say about someone, you shouldn’t say anything at all. Therefore I will not go.”

Dean is scheduled to attend an Oct. 9 fundraiser at the law office of Allan Katz, a Florida Democratic National Committee member who has unsuccessfully tried to persuade the state party to abandon the Jan. 29 primary and schedule a convention or caucuses after Feb. 5.