Ickes: Zero delegates for Obama in MI
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008 1:45 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC/NJ’s Mike Memoli
On a conference call this morning, Clinton senior adviser Harold Ickes argued not only that Michigan’s and Florida’s delegations should receive full votes at the convention, but that the Michigan's 55 uncommitted delegates should be seated as such, not given to the Obama camp.
“The views of the voters in the Michigan primary and in the Florida primary [should] be respected and be reflected in terms of the allocation of delegates,” Ickes said. (For the numbers, if Clinton were awarded the delegates based on the results of the primary, she would get 73 delegates. Neither of the challenges to be taken up by the Rules and Bylaws Committee on May 31 call for splits adhere strictly to the results of the primaries.)
Communications Director Howard Wolfson later acknowledged that these uncommitted delegates would likely go for Obama, and that there were efforts from his supporters in the state to drive up the uncommitted count, since he wasn't on the ballot. But Ickes then added that it would be “presumptuous” to assume that these uncommitteds would go for either candidate, and that these delegates would “get a lot of attention” from both campaigns.
The Clinton camp has argued consistently for months now that Michigan and Florida should be seated. But to what degree has varied of late. Terry McAuliffe told NBC’s Tim Russert on Meet the Press May 11 that the campaign “certainly might” accept giving Michigan and Florida half votes, which he claimed DNC rules called for. As DNC chairman, McAuliffe wrote about threatening to strip Michigan of 50% of its delegates if it moved up its date. Bill Clinton has also called a 50% penalty “appropriate.”
Ickes today said Michigan and Florida should be seated fully because, in his view, they have already been punished.
“The fact is that punishment was imposed by virtue of not running the primaries there; the lessons were learned,” he said, adding that the attention should now turn toward winning the states in the fall.
Asked why then the votes should count if there weren’t traditional, contested primaries, Ickes pointed to significant turnout in both states.
“People came out in droves,” he said. “They knew who they wanted to vote for.”
Both Ickes and Wolfson declined to say what would happen if the Rules and Bylaws Committee ruled for anything less than a full commitment, but did not rule out taking it to the Credentials Committee at the convention. Ickes sits on the committee and last year voted to strip Florida of its delegates.
Wolfson also continued to press the campaign’s electability argument, pointing to new Quinnipiac numbers in Ohio and Florida specifically that show her running stronger against McCain than Obama.
“We urge superdelegates to look at the map that we believe makes very clear that Sen. Clinton would be the stronger nominee against John McCain,” he said. “We believe the party ought to choose the person who is already winning these [swing] states, has won them in primaries, and would be the strongest possible nominee.”
