Clinton Strategist: Obama Isn't Entitled to Michigan Delegates
WSJ.COM
In Campaign 2008
Matt Phillips reports on the presidential race.
Harold Ickes, a senior advisor to Sen. Hillary Clinton?s campaign and a Democratic National Committee member, told reporters today that Sen. Barack Obama is not entitled to receive any delegates from the disputed Jan. 15 Michigan primary because his name was not on the ballot.
Clinton ?won? the contest with 55% of the vote, but Obama took his name off prior to voting in part because the state had violated party rules by expediting their primary. One proposal being floated is to award the ?uncommitted? votes to Obama, a plan which Ickes called a non-starter.
"Uncommitted status is clothed in, and is given, the same rights and protections as a named presidential candidate," Ickes said.
The DNC?s Rules and Bylaws Committee is set to meet for a day-long meeting Saturday to hash out the dispute that stripped both Michigan and Florida of its delegates because the two states violated party rules.
"This committee, the Rules and Bylaws Committee, and the DNC does not have the jurisdiction or the power to take those delegates, to take that uncommitted delegate line, and award it to Sen. Obama or any other presidential campaign any more than this committee and the DNC has the power to take the 73 delegates or any part thereof that were awarded to Hillary Clinton as a result of that January primary and give them to another candidate,? Ickes said, ?That is as fundamental a rule as there is. It is bedrock, it's below bedrock, you know, of our party. And so that's a long answer, and the short answer is no."
Ickes maintained that the uncommitted delegates have to remain just that. "They have the absolute right to go and support whomever they want,? he said, ?But they must as a matter of party law and party rule remain uncommitted and be certified to the Democratic National Convention as uncommitted."
Clinton supporters are advocating to fully seat the delegates from the two states according to the original contests, but DNC lawyers said in a memo to RBC members this week that rules require both states to lose half of their delegates because of the violation. Their opinion doesn't say how the committee should vote, but offers two options: allot half the delegates from each state to attend the convention, or allow the full delegations to attend with half a vote each. |
