Florida Democrats drop bid to stage primary re-run

MIAMI (Reuters) - Florida's Democratic Party said on Monday it would no longer push for a rerun of the state's invalid primary election to pick a presidential nominee, leaving a decision on what to do with the state's delegates entirely to the national party.

The chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, Karen Thurman, said thousands of voters had sent in messages expressing their preference after the Democratic National Committee invalidated the January 29 balloting to punish Florida for holding its primary early.

"The consensus is clear: Florida doesn't want to vote again. So we won't," Thurman said in a statement.

Thurman said a decision on allowing Florida's delegates to take part in the Democratic convention that will pick a nominee for the November presidential election would have to come from the national party's rules and bylaws committee. The panel is next due to meet in April.

The Democratic primaries in both Florida and Michigan were deemed invalid because both states disobeyed party directives and held their balloting earlier to have a greater say in the selection of candidates.

Florida's Republican Party also moved up its primary, prompting the national party to cut in half the number of delegates the state would be entitled to send to the national convention.

Hillary Clinton, a New York senator, won the Democratic primaries in both Florida and Michigan, although the name of her rival, Sen. Barack Obama, was not on the ballot in Michigan.

The standoff over what to do with the disputed primaries threatens to mar the Democratic convention and increase bitterness between Clinton and Obama.

Clinton has called for seating the delegates from both contests or staging the primaries again. Obama, an Illinois senator, has said he will work to find an agreeable solution, but opposes seating delegates from the unsanctioned contests.

DNC spokeswoman Stacie Paxton said about the Florida decision: "We will continue to work with Florida to come to a solution that's fair and within the rules."

(Reporting by Michael Christie; editing by Philip Barbara)