Obama’s Florida visits scrutinized

The Nevada Democratic Party says it is up to voters to decide whether presidential candidate Barack Obama broke his promise not to campaign in Florida when he talked to reporters in Tampa on Sunday.

"We are busy preparing for our caucus, and we will not be policing the pledge," party Deputy Executive Director Kirsten Searer said Monday.

At issue was a report that, leaving a fundraising event at the home of a supporter in the Florida city, the U.S. senator from Illinois stopped to take questions from reporters waiting outside.

Obama and the rest of the major Democratic presidential candidates in August pledged not to campaign in Florida.

The state Democratic parties of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina teamed up in creating the pledge, which commits candidates not to campaign in any states -- other than those four -- that schedule nominating contests before Feb. 5. That category currently includes Michigan and Florida, whose legislatures scheduled primaries on Jan. 15 and Jan. 29, respectively.

Fundraising is specifically exempted from the pledge. In Florida, the candidates are taking heat from critics who accuse them of being willing to take money from the state but not to talk to its voters.

Meanwhile, the four states that came up with the pledge are not inclined to hold candidates to it, rendering the document toothless.

The Florida controversy epitomizes the can't-win situation the campaigns have been put in because of the chaotic, still-unsettled nominating calendar.

Nevada's presidential caucuses are scheduled for Jan. 19, the first time the state will have a nominating contest in the influential early stage of the process.

The pledge was intended to keep the focus on the four states the Democratic National Committee chose last year to go before "Super Tuesday." Nevada was added to the mix to add diversity to the nominating process but has gotten the least candidate attention of the four.

According to a report on the Web site of the Tampa Tribune, Obama took "half a dozen questions" from reporters outside the fundraiser. He was asked if, by doing so, he was violating the pledge, since one of the activities specified in the Democratic National Committee bylaws under the definition of "campaigning" is "holding news conferences."

"I was just doing you guys a favor. ... If that's the case, then we won't do it again," Obama said, according to the Tribune's William March.

Later Sunday, leaving a fundraiser in St. Petersburg, Obama cited the pledge in refusing to engage in another impromptu Q-and-A.

"I'm not allowed to talk to the press, guys!" Obama said after ignoring several questions from the St. Petersburg Times' Adam Smith, who was "shouting" inquiries as the candidate walked to his car.

Pressed further, Obama said, "I signed a pledge!" before getting in the vehicle, reportedly headed for another fundraiser in Miami.

A spokesman said Obama didn't do anything wrong, but wouldn't do it again.

"He was being courteous to some reporters," Robert Gibbs, who was with Obama in Florida, said Monday. "It wasn't a news conference. You can see (he's not holding news conferences) from later in the day, where he's not talking to Florida reporters."

Gibbs said Obama remains committed to the four states' primacy.

"When he signed the pledge, he made it very clear that he would adhere to it, that that was his priority," Gibbs said.

Did he or didn't he? There will be no official determination of whether Obama violated the pledge, however inadvertently.

"We're not going to comment on individual candidate appearances," Searer said, saying that was the position of all four of the states that came up with the pledge.

"The point of the pledge is that the candidates made a commitment to the voters in the four early states," she said. "Our voters are engaged enough and savvy enough that they can make that determination on their own."

The chairs of all four early-state Democratic parties co-signed a letter to that effect to the Florida Democratic Party on Sept. 18.

Responding to a request that an exception to the pledge be made for the state's Democratic Convention this month, the chairs, including Nevada Democratic Party Chairwoman Jill Derby, said they would only do so if the Florida party disavowed the Jan. 29 event, which the party later last month refused to do.

"Our caucus-goers and voters will monitor the candidates and media coverage and will ultimately decide whether the campaigns are keeping their promises," the letter states. "The four states are busy preparing for their respective calendar events and cannot and should not police the calendar process."