Clinton Camp Heads Full Steam Into DNC
Delegate Meeting
Hillary Clinton and her supporters are making what may be their last stand, at a Democratic Party meeting this weekend in Washington, D.C.
When a rules panel of the Democratic National Committee takes up the issue of disputed Michigan and Florida primaries Saturday morning, Clinton's campaign will continue to argue that the delegations from both states should be seated in full.
The Florida-Michigan decision is practically her only remaining chance of securing a tidal wave of delegates. As of Friday, the New York senator was more than 200 delegates behind Barack Obama, and in the three primaries left to go she cannot win enough to make up that difference.
"We are hopeful and confident that after having a full-blown discussion … all the delegates will be seated, 100 percent, all of them will have a full vote," Clinton adviser Harold Ickes said in a conference call with reporters Friday.
Clinton won both states, but their delegations were stripped for holding early primaries in violation of party rules. The options before the Rules and Bylaws Committee on Saturday are to restore the delegates in full, restore part of the delegation or uphold the original penalty.
Obama has said he's willing to have some delegates seated, and party leaders have expressed hope that DNC Chairman Howard Dean can broker a compromise to ensure party unity come June.
Clinton's campaign, though, is encouraging supporters to head to the meeting Saturday to protest.
"These people are coming. They're going to speak. They're going to peacefully say, 'We support what's going on in this room.' … We want them to be part of the entire picture of the Democratic Party," Clinton adviser Tina Flournoy said Friday, objecting to anybody who tries to describe the scene as "chaos" or a "circus."
In a letter to the committee Friday, the campaign's general counsel said the possibility of no delegates being seated is "an unacceptable outcome."
The letter said that the campaign wants "all" delegates restored and disputed a DNC lawyer's assessment that the committee is unable to restore more than half of the delegates.
"This conclusion is incorrect," the letter said, arguing that the committee can "forgive violations" when "positive steps" have been taken to come into compliance.
The vexing question is how the delegates would be allocated even if they were counted.
Neither candidate campaigned in the states, and Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan. Many Michigan voters who favored Obama registered their support by voting "uncommitted."
A Florida proposal suggests reducing the state's delegation by half, while Michigan Democrats have proposed splitting the delegates, giving Clinton 69 and Obama 59.
But the Clinton campaign says since not all "uncommitted" voters in Michigan wanted Obama, it would be arbitrary to execute such a plan.
DNC member Joel Ferguson, a Clinton supporter, also said that plan is "fatally flawed."
"If you're going to solve breaking rules, you can't do it by having a new set of rules," he told FOX News, adding that Obama shouldn't get extra points for taking his name off the Michigan ballot.
Committee Co-Chairman James Roosevelt said it's possible the issue could be appealed to the Credentials Committee if there's no agreement this weekend.
But party officials already have said they will step in to prevent this fight from going to the August convention.
The Clinton campaign in its letter even stated that the rules committee should resolve the issue "promptly" and discussed the possibility of seating the delegations from both states with half-votes. That would be a compromise from the Clinton campaign.
Though she is pushing for a complete reversal of the original DNC decision on Michigan and Florida, that alone would not save her ailing campaign.
Even if all the two states' 313 pledged delegates were allocated, with no votes for Obama from Michigan, Clinton would get 178 to Obama's 67, closing the gap by 111 votes, according to The Associated Press.
Obama, with 1,984 delegates, is just 42 shy of the 2,026 it takes to clinch the nomination. Clinton is at 1,782.
The Obama campaign acknowledges that Saturday's decision may increase the number of delegates it takes to win, but says the race will still be over soon.
Montana and South Dakota hold the final Democratic primaries in the country Tuesday, after Puerto Rico holds its contest Sunday.
"As long as by Tuesday Senator Obama's campaign ends with more pledged delegates - and there's no mathematical way that does not happen - he's clearly gonna be the nominee by almost every measure," said Chris Kofinis, former spokesman for Democratic candidate John Edwards. "And if that happens you're gonna see a wave of superdelegates go his way."
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