Obama camp suggests Clinton will break no-Florida pledge

A spokesman for Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign sent out a memo Tuesday afternoon suggesting that rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) might violate her pledge not to campaign in Florida ahead of its Jan. 29 primary.

{mosads}Obama spokesman Bill Burton said in the memo that Clinton has scheduled a fundraiser in Florida for Jan. 27, and “there are signs – despite Senator Clinton’s public pledge to the contrary – that she may be planning to campaign in the state – inquiring about large venues and increased organizing activity – ahead of the Florida primary.”

The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic candidates signed a pledge not to campaign in any of the early states that violated the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) rules regarding the scheduling of primary contests. The committee stripped those states of all delegates as a penalty. In Michigan, which holds its primary Tuesday night, Obama and former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) went a step further than the pledge, removing their names from the ballot.

The purpose of Burton’s memo was to remind recipients that the results of Tuesday night’s Michigan primary, much like Florida, “have no bearing on the Democratic nomination contest” because the state has no delegates.

A fundraiser in the state is not a violation of the candidates’ pledges or the DNC’s terms for penalizing the states in question.

Burton reiterated in the memo that Obama is “firm in his commitment” to refrain from campaigning in Florida.

“Our position and the position of the DNC is clear – neither the Florida nor Michigan primaries are playing any role in deciding the Democratic nominee and we are not campaigning in either state,” Burton wrote.

The memo hit email inboxes just hours before polls closed in Michigan and the Democratic field was scheduled to take to the debate stage in Las Vegas, Nev.