Coleman Endorses Clark For President
nbc4columbus.com
Coleman To Serve as Ohio Campaign Manager
POSTED: 10:41 AM EST December 23, 2003
UPDATED: 11:25 AM EST December 23, 2003
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark got his first endorsement from a big-city mayor when Columbus' Michael Coleman announced he supports the retired general.
Coleman also held a news conference on Monday to announce that he will serve as Ohio campaign manager for Clark and actively campaign for him.
"I intend on engaging in this race," Coleman said. "My endorsement is not an endorsement in name only. I'm going to campaign for this man because I believe in him."
Coleman, who sent a letter to Clark in July urging him to join the Democratic race, said he had evaluated the nine-candidate field and concluded that Clark is "head and shoulders above the rest."
"This is as big an endorsement as we've gotten so far," said Clark for President spokesman Eli Segal. "As big an endorsement as we can get going forward as Wes Clark puts it: Endorsements are of two kinds. There are the kind of automatic ones and then the ones that really make a difference."
Clark spoke by phone from Columbia, S.C., where he was campaigning for that state's Feb. 3 primary.
He predicted Coleman's endorsement will translate into votes in Ohio and elsewhere because Coleman "works where the rubber meets the road -- down in a city. He carries enormous credibility."
Coleman, the city's first black mayor, will campaign for Clark in South Carolina, where roughly half of the Democratic voters are black.
Clark campaigned there Monday with two other black leaders, Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor, and Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. |
