The delegate fight: Is the party moving?
Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 10:06 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Phil Bredesen, the two-term governor of Tennessee who is uncommitted to either Clinton or Obama, “joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in warning that superdelegates should not overturn the outcome from primaries and caucuses,” Politico reports. “If Obama were denied the nomination by Democratic insiders after winning the party’s popular vote, Bredesen said, ‘There would be hell to pay in the party for a long time to come.’”
And check out this exchange with Sen. Maj. Leader Harry Reid in the Las Vegas Journal-Review: “Reid said he remains convinced the nominee will be decided well before the August national convention. He wore a serene and mysterious smile….
Question: Do you still think the Democratic race can be resolved before the convention?
Reid: Easy.
Q: How is that?
Reid: It will be done.
Q: It just will?
Reid: Yep.
Q: Magically?
Reid: No, it will be done. I had a conversation with Governor Dean (Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean) today. Things are being done.
On Michigan and Florida, Reid said, "Michigan and Florida wouldn't play by the rules. They're not my rules. They're not the caucus' rules. They're DNC rules. They broke the rules. Michigan and Florida delegates are going to be seated. They're going to be a part of the convention. It's a question of whether anything can be worked out to change this prior to the 2,025. They're the ones causing all the problems. No one else did. And so they will be seated. They're big states. They represent 29 million people. We want to make sure their delegates are part of the convention that takes place in Denver."
PENNSYLVANIA: 4/22 (158 delegates)
Some PA notes, per NBC/NJ’s Matthew Berger:
The economy is the focus of Clinton’s first 30-second ads in Pennsylvania. It is believed her ad buy is significantly less than Obama’s and focuses primarily in the Philadelphia media market. She spent about $600,000, Obama spent close to $1.6 million.
Emily’s List will be launching a direct mail and telephone campaign on Clinton’s behalf, starting next week. “They'll specifically be targeting ‘non-college educated women, college women and older women who have suffered the most in this economic down-turn and thus have the most at stake in this election.’ They will target Philadelphia and its suburbs for now, but don’t rule out expanding throughout the state.
The Philadelphia Inquirer notes the irony of Clinton speaking to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review: “The Tribune-Review is owned by billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, a financier of conservative causes, including, at one point, research into Bill Clinton's alleged sexual affairs when he was governor of Arkansas. He was a prominent part of the ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ that Hillary Clinton blamed for the couple's political woes in a 1998 TV interview shortly after the Monica Lewinsky affair came to light. She said yesterday her encounter with Scaife ‘was actually very pleasant.’ ‘There was a lot of discussion of foreign and domestic issues,’ Clinton said. ‘I said at the beginning that . . . it was somewhat counterintuitive for me to be there.’”
Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia suggests a forum on urban issues before the primary. Clinton quickly accepted.
Clinton waiting until right before Election Day to release her tax records may be a move from the Ed Rendell playbook, John Baer says. The impact of the returns would be minimized if reporters don’t have weeks to review them. “Does anyone think seven or eight years of Clinton finances, especially Bill's, won't make for interesting reading? I mean why else delay so long?”
Rep. Tim Holden says he hasn’t endorsed Clinton, even though he marched with her at a St. Patrick’s Day parade. He said he hadn’t heard from the Obama camp, but that was quickly rectified.
NORTH CAROLINA: 5/6 (115 delegates)
Some NC notes, per NBC/NJ’s Carrie Dann’s:
Yesterday’s new poll numbers bouncing around the state from Public Policy Polling (PPP) show Barack Obama up by over 20 points over Hillary Clinton. There's much debate over the legitimacy of that result, in part because of recent changes in the company's sampling methodology. But the interpretations of both campaigns reveal quite a bit about the expectations-setting game in the Tar Heel State. The Winston-Salem Journal's James Romoser asked both campaigns' state bigs about the poll, which shows a lead jump from a single point for Obama last week to over 20 yesterday. He writes: "Averell 'Ace' Smith, Clinton’s North Carolina director, said he believes the truth is somewhere in between those two numbers. Craig Schirmer, Obama’s North Carolina director, said he thinks the poll showing a one-point lead is closer to the truth." Smith also noted that his candidate faces long odds here, noting that a win for her "would probably be one of the greatest upsets, probably in the last 10 years."
Team Barack Obama descends on the state for the second time in a week, with an afternoon event in Greensboro. The visit caused a minor stir last week when rumors circulated that the campaign had canceled an earlier Greensboro event for security reasons. The chatter was eventually knocked down, but that doesn't stop the city paper here from leading off its coverage of today's visit with a description of local law enforcement's effort to supplement the USSS.
One of Carolina's pols, striving to become the second ever openly gay nominee for the US Senate, runs his campaign on a new model that journalists say is inspired by the grassroots politics perfected by Barack Obama.
One of the biggest questions in the mind of the local press corps here swirls around a potential debate in the state sometime between now and primary day. Every day sees a new rumor about the state's colleges and universities' plotting to be the site of a potential CBS debate. In a conference call yesterday, reporters all but invited an Obama surrogate to bash Clinton over not having formally accepted the invite yet.
