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Even as Clinton backs Obama, drama builds over handling of roll-call vote

Todd Hartmanand M.E. Sprengelmeyer, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 27, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Chelsea Clinton, left, and her mother hug during a sound check at the Pepsi Center Tuesday, before Hillary Clinton's address.

Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez / The Rocky

Chelsea Clinton, left, and her mother hug during a sound check at the Pepsi Center Tuesday, before Hillary Clinton's address.

Hillary Clinton supporter Gloria Allred, center, chants "We want a roll call" before the Women's Suffrage March along Colfax Avenue on Tuesday. Allred is a delegate who says she plans to vote for Clinton.

Photo by James Glover Ii / The Rocky

Hillary Clinton supporter Gloria Allred, center, chants "We want a roll call" before the Women's Suffrage March along Colfax Avenue on Tuesday. Allred is a delegate who says she plans to vote for Clinton.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, escorted by the Secret Service, walks to a vehicle near the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Clinton plans to meet with her delegates this afternoon.

Photo by Silvia Razgova / Special To The Rocky

Sen. Hillary Clinton, escorted by the Secret Service, walks to a vehicle near the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Clinton plans to meet with her delegates this afternoon.

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The drama surrounding how Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic run for president will be affirmed on the floor of the Democratic National Convention showed little letup Tuesday, even as she worked to soothe the frayed nerves of her supporters with a unifying prime-time speech.

Speculation on how the process will unfold dominated talk among delegates and underscored the challenge facing Democratic leaders who have promised to come away from Denver with a unified party solidly backing Barack Obama in his presidential face-off with Republican John McCain.

Delegates at the Pepsi Center described various approaches, including a proposal that Clinton would be permitted a rousing and victorious roll-call vote from New York delegates, only to be answered by a vote for presumptive nominee Barack Obama from the Illinois delegation.

That could be followed by a call from Clinton herself to acclaim Obama's nomination.

"I just think everyone needs to breathe," said one Clinton campaign official peppered with questions about negotiations over how the roll-call vote would be handled.

While many delegates predicted things would work out smoothly, others were still pushing for a full state-by-state roll call on the convention floor, collecting signatures by petition to make it happen.

"She's earned that right," said Ercilia Albistu, a Tampa, Fla., delegate sporting a Team Hillary T-shirt as she walked into the Pepsi Center.

"If her delegates want to vote for her, that's why we got here, that's why we ran as delegates for her and worked for her."

Even DNC committee members were unsure how the matter would be resolved.

One of them, Aleita Huguenin, an early Clinton supporter who now backs Obama, said a drawn-out roll call could actually backfire.

Some Clinton backers could drop off to unify behind Obama, the thinking goes, and she ends up with fewer delegate votes than earlier projections.

"Some people think that takes the patina off her win," Huguenin said.

The spotlight's glare

A bigger concern is prime-time television. A time-consuming roll-call vote and any surrounding controversy could drain away critical coverage.

"That time is too precious to advance the nominee's message," Huguenin said.

One prominent Clinton backer (now backing Obama) in Colorado, former state Senate President Stan Matsunaka, sent an e-mail to Clinton supporters after a meeting with Clinton officials warning them to remain civil.

Matsunaka said Clinton wants the message sent to delegates that "you can vote any way you want; however, she says not to embarrass her, her campaign, Obama or the state party."

Clinton plans to meet with her delegates today at 1:15 p.m. at the Colorado Convention Center to formally release them from their commitment to support her at the convention.

"She will reiterate that she's voting for Senator Obama and will encourage them to do the same," said Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.

"This is the first time she's going to see these delegates since the primaries. It's a moment she wants to share with them before they have the roll-call vote."

Obama and Clinton are working on a roll-call resolution that satisfies everyone, Obama's deputy communications director Josh Earnest said.

"It's something that Senator Clinton is committed to, and that's why we're confident it will happen," Earnest said.

Pushing unity

Clinton continued to push the unity theme Tuesday in a gathering at the downtown Sheraton with more than 2,000 members of Emily's List, an organization that pushes for the election of pro-choice Democratic women. She encouraged them to get behind Obama, saying "Barack and (running mate) Joe (Biden) will champion the issues we care about. They will be there with us."

But not all of Clinton's efforts to bring her backers around to Obama are working.

While some delegates complained the rift over how Clinton will be acknowledged at the convention and the threat of her supporters voting for McCain are driven by a controversy-hungry media, others marching through Denver on Tuesday suggested the concern is valid.

Several hundred Clinton supporters marched down Colfax Avenue waving signs and chanting loudly to demand she get a full roll-call vote at convention. Their loudest chant was "18 million voices! We want the roll call!"

Still, many Clinton backers seem to simply want some kind of symbolic effort to acknowledge her candidacy, and have no plans to spurn Obama.

"I know it's a foregone conclusion," said Isaac Adams, 35, a Clinton delegate from Atlanta.

Adams said he'll back Obama, but because he was elected as a delegate on a promise to vote for Clinton in Denver, he wants to do that first.

"I'd like to see just a nod, a little respect. That would help more (Clinton delegates) make the transition."

hartmant@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5048 Staff writers Tom Humphrey and Tina Griego contributed to this report.

Comments

  • August 27, 2008

    11:13 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    CiCi writes:

    The Clintons have been shown respect. She had a full hour last night, in prime time. This is supposed to be about winning the White House, it isn't supposed to be about anything else.