The Florida Democratic Party says there's new hope that its delegates will be seated at the national convention in August.

Spokesman Mark Bubriski says the state party has been talking with the campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton this week and made progress toward recognizing all or a portion of Florida's Democratic delegates.

State Democrats have 211 delegates. Twenty-six of those are superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who have more flexibility in choosing a presidential candidate.

One Florida superdelegate has announced he is throwing his support to Barack Obama. Representative Dan Gelber, the Democratic leader in the Florida House, says he doesn't think Hillary Clinton can win the nomination and it's time for the primary race to end.

Most Florida superdelegates remain uncommitted as they wait for the primary scramble to sort itself out.

Bubriski says he's encouraged by new movement to settle the fate of Florida's delegates.

Bubriski says the Democratic National Committee should respect Florida's January 29th primary and split up the delegates based on that vote. Clinton won 50 percent, Obama got 33 percent and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards had 14 percent.

A record 1.7 million Democrats voted in Florida that day. Bubriski says that was a larger vote than even in New York and Floridians deserve to be heard in the nominating process.

But former President Jimmy Carter disagrees. Carter says he thinks the delegates from Florida and Michigan should not be counted at the convention because he says they disqualified themselves.

National Democrats stripped Florida of all of its delegates when the state moved up its primary to January 29th - a week before party rules allowed.

Now without those votes, it looks as if neither Obama nor Clinton can reach the required 2,025 delegates to win the nomination.

AP's delegate count shows Obama currently leads Clinton: 1,846 to 1,696.
     
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)