DNC To Decide About Florida And Michigan's Delegates On Saturday

Washington, D.C.(AHN) - The fate of Florida and Michigan's convention delegates will be decided today after the Rules and By-laws panel of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) holds a public meeting in Washington.

The Sunshine and Great Lakes States were stripped of all their convention delegates by the DNC for scheduling their respective primaries earlier than Feb. 5. Only four states - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina - were allowed to hold primaries before that date.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) won largely symbolic primaries in Florida and Michigan, and neither she nor rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has been awarded any of either state's respective 210 and 156 convention delegates.

Democrats in both states have been working on separate proposals for DNC Chairman Howard Dean on how to seat their delegates. They earlier considered holding do-overs of their primaries, but the plans did not gain enough support, particularly from Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod, who expressed concerns about the security and fairness of holding new contests in either state.

Michigan Democrats also pushed to have their delegate split between Clinton and Obama, 69 to 59, but the proposal was immediately rejected by Clinton.

A proposal to restore only half of all delegates was floated this week, but the members of the Rules panel failed to reach an agreement during a meeting Friday night about the proposal.

Supporters of both Clinton and Obama, who leads the total delegate race 1,983 to 1,782, are expected to converge on Saturday in front of the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C where the DNC began its meeting at 9:30 a.m. ET.