August 15, 2008 - 11:02am
News

Roll call for Hillary: Her delegates say yes, Obama delegates divided

State Sens. Phil Bartlett and Libby Mitchell rally for Clinton at the Democratic State Convention

 

Maine’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention are on both sides of the fence when it comes to having a roll call vote for Hillary Clinton.

Presumptive nominee Barack Obama’s campaign made the announcement along with Clinton’s campaign that Clinton’s name will be submitted for nomination in the first round of balloting.

Before the announcement was officially made, PolitickerME sent out an e-mail survey to all of the elected DNC delegates.

Two Clinton supporters responded, and both favored a roll call vote. Seven Obama supporters responded. Three favored a roll call, three opposed it and one would not comment on the issue.

DNC delegate and state Rep. Linda Valentino (D-Saco) knows Hillary Clinton isn’t going to win the Democratic presidential nomination. “We want to vote for her on the first vote,” Valentino said after a recent event in Saco. “All of us worked so hard for Hillary, and this is history in the making.”

Alternate delegate and state Sen. Phil Bartlett (D-Gorham) said that if he is upgraded, he will happily vote for Clinton at the convention, but also plans to work hard for Obama in November.

“My support of Hillary Clinton in the primary was based on her extensive experience and her strong vision for our country,” Bartlett said in an e-mail. “It was not a vote against Barack Obama. I commend him on running an excellent primary campaign and laying out a vision for America that we all can embrace. I will do everything I can to help elect him in November.”

State Rep. Chris Babbidge (D-Kennebunk) is also a delegate. He’s surprised the issue even came up.

“I’m surprised at the flap over the roll call issue,” Babbidge said in an e-mail. “I have expected a roll call, and expect to be counted for Hillary, but I certainly would support Barack at the time of the roll call if she asked us to. It was historic for Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith to be nominated in 1964, and Hillary certainly deserves historical recognition for her achievement in this campaign.”

“But either way,” Babbidge added, “I’ll be strongly in Obama’s corner from now through Election Day.”

Obama supporters were divided on the roll call issue.

Prior to the announcement, House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven), state Rep. Jon Hinck (D-Portland), Rita Moran, the Kennebec County party chair and a state committee member, and state Rep. Elaine Makas (D-Lewiston) all said a roll call vote wasn’t necessary.

“It would likely be embarrassing for her, since some of her former delegates have switched allegiance by now (and she is intelligent enough to know that,” said Makas, an alternate delegate. “I, personally have the greatest respect for Sen. Clinton, and I want her to be greeted by the convention with the respect she deserves.”

“I do not have a strong opinion about a roll call vote,” Hinck said. “I generally am less inclined to favor symbolic gestures. Hillary Clinton has a great deal of substance and I trust that she will tend to focus on meaningful ways to move this country forward.”

Diane Denk of Kennebunk is an alternate to the convention. “I would ideally wish for all the delegates to speak in one unified voice,” she said. “But I know there are many whose healing will not begin until their positions are recognized. I do not want this convention to become a forum for dissent and unhappiness, but rather hope and reform.”

Clinton, however, should be offered the Vice Presidential slot, Denk said. “She would be excellent and the union of both candidates would truly create an unbeatable ticket in November.”

David Bright of Dixmont, a delegate for Obama, had similar sentiments.

“To not do so places the fall election in danger of going to McCain,” Bright said. “While I’m not one of them, Clinton has millions of supporters around the country who need to have closure on a long and hard-fought campaign. If they are disrespected they are likely to just stay home on Election Day, and that will throw the election to McCain.”

JESSICA ALAIMO is a PolitickerME.com Reporter and can be reached via email at jessica.alaimo@politickerme.com.

Comments

Wait and See Attitude


I am reluctant to jump on the jubilation bandwagon. Are we going to have true democratic principles. Is there going to be caveats, fine print?
There has to be a legitimate, open convention with an acknowledgement that by their own rules the Democratic Party does not now have an official nominee. Senator Clinton's name in nomination has to mean a genuinely democratic opportunity for super delegates to exercise their judgment and to cast their votes for the nominee they are willing to take responsibility for sending out against the Republicans, based on who they think will be the better candidate and the better President.

08/15/08 4:10 pm

tlintx


What is this verbal diarrhea? It's a formality, and a recognition of Clinton's hard work and historic place. Your pairing of "democratic process" and "superdelegates" is pretty ironic.

Oh, by the way, you know that Clinton has pledged her superdelegate vote for Obama, right?

08/15/08 5:02 pm

nomination


Isn't the role of a delegate to represent the people who voted for a particular candidate? I hope the delegates remember their purpose. We are holding the Hillary delegates accountable, by voting for her!

And since Obama does not have enough delegates to secure the nomination at this point, why was there even a question of Hillary's name in nomination. I hope this is a true nominating convention, not a scripted coronation.

08/15/08 5:33 pm

Embarrassing?


I had to laugh when I read about an alternate delegate saying it would be embarrassing for Clinton to have a roll call vote. Wasn't it Donna Brazile who said she didn't think a roll call vote would be a good idea because it would embarrass Obama? That's the more likely scenario, because the vote will show that Clinton clearly still has way more support than the Obama camp would like to admit.

08/15/08 6:34 pm

posted by rrowing: I hope


posted by rrowing:

I hope this is a true nominating convention, not a scripted coronation.

You mean, like your GOP convention?

08/15/08 7:01 pm

Glad they've noticed....


“To not do so places the fall election in danger of going to McCain,” Bright said. “While I’m not one of them, Clinton has millions of supporters around the country who need to have closure on a long and hard-fought campaign. If they are disrespected they are likely to just stay home on Election Day, and that will throw the election to McCain.”
====================

I'm glad that Obama's people, and the media, are noticing that they are in serious trouble. This week's Pew poll says:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/924/presidential-race-draws-even
“The Obama campaign has made no significant headway among former Clinton backers over the past two months. The voting preferences of Clinton’s supporters are virtually identical to earlier polls in June and July.”

Pew, NOT COUNTING STAYHOMES, finds
“Among the 28% who say they will not support Obama on November 4th, 18% say they will support McCain , 7% don’t yet know who they will support and 3% plan to back another candidate.”

Quin also found no improvement for BO among Hil’s in recent months.

Opinion Research, which DID COUNT STAYHOMES, found 9 million total anti-Obamas in July, UP
from 7 million in June (4 million stayhome, 3 million McCain).

In June, Opinion Research’s breakdown was 3 million voting for McCain and 4 million staying home.

PUtting HIllary on as VP doesn't help either. It repels as many as it attracts, according to WP/ABC's July poll.

I hope that Obama does some math and some soul-searching, and decides that he'd rather be Hillary's VP than be the McGovern of 2008.

08/16/08 12:21 am

So Obama isn't going to


So Obama isn't going to throw a hissy fit with Hillary's name being placed in nomination. Is he growing up finally?
THis is the last chance the super-delegates have to re-think their endorsement of Obama.
He's falling in the polls, many Clinton supporters won't vote for him, and his lack of experience is truely frightening. It's Hillary or McCain . . . that's the choice.

08/16/08 12:37 am

Response to Anonymous1


Let me put this in English and slow so you can u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d. Hillary didn't say she was voting for Obama. Oh that's right if you believe all messiah lies then you believe the MSM that didn't tell us about the Edwards affair. It had to be broken by a supermarket tabloid, The Enquirer.

PUMA ROCKS!!!!!

08/16/08 1:03 am

May it Be


I am just hoping that the delegates hold out against the bull-dozing DNC who are basically ordering everyone to vote for Obama. I am hoping that the super-delegates decide to vote in the best interest of our country and support Senator Clinton.
Obama will NEVER win in November. That's a fact. We don't want Mccain!
Please, give us Hillary and let there be a fighting chance of a real America again.

08/16/08 1:30 am

PUMA


This entire primary season has been rigged to give the weaker candidate every single bit of leeway imaginable. Not only is Obama the weaker candidate: far less experienced, far less wise, and one who got less votes than Hillary, and one who never even won the all important big blue dem states and purple swing states, but he also had the media and the DNC and dem party big tops sweating everyday to protect and promote him, while never vetting him, all while attacking the Clinton's and Hillary's supporters. Our democracy has become one big JOKE, and it is NOT FUNNY. Stealing delegates and the under-handed dealings at the caucuses is revolting! Obama was only in the U.S. Senate for ONE year before he announced his candidacy, and then he campaigned the rest of the time in the Senate!! What the heck has he done, besides voting "present" 130 times, and NOT SHOWING UP? The man was a part time state senator before now and that's when he was buddying up with Wright, Ayers, Rezko, Dorn, Farrakhan, Kilpatrick, Meeks, Pfleger and the Daley Machine, ACORN, and with a million other crazies!

I cannot believe he duped soooo many gullible Americans, what fools, to vote for a man who has changed his position on nearly every democratic stance, all while pathologically lying ON VIDEO TAPE. It's truly horrifying.

We need to fight for the true democrat, the one who can actually lead us with wisdom and experience, one who has actually fought for democracy. I CARE about our country, and I WILL FIGHT for the USA!

Just Say No Deal
Puma Pac
The Denver Group

P.U.M.A.

08/16/08 10:45 am

Laughable


Oh PUMA. Hillary doesn't even support or recognize you guys. Watch the video at the end of the post. Geeeez.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/15/31818/6878/241/568256

08/16/08 4:46 pm

Clinton supporters seek to steal election


Hillary Clinton and her most rabid supporters are not seeking closure. There was plenty of time for that in the late spring and early summer. Instead they are trying to figure out whether they can steal the nomination from Obama. You cannot trust the Clintons. If they can't steal the nomination, then they will hold the party and Obama hostage for the vice-presidency. No one should think that Hillary and many of her supporters will be satisfied with anything short of surrender by Obama on these points. There is no way to placate them, and no way that Hillary will make a concerted effort to help Obama become elected. If her dying vision of 2008 grandeur fades completely, the vision for 2012 immediately comes into her focus. That is not an attack, that is just the way she is. The 2012 vision depends on McCain being elected.

She and her supporters will never be fully satisfied. They will always have a basis to be aggreived and to withold their full support. Their anger, and self righteousness is more important than whether Roe v. Wade is overturned, the continuation of the Iraq war and the starting of other wars, national bankruptcy, and the trampling of civil liberties in the name of security.

While McCain was impressive in his delivery last night, the content of what he said was truly frightening. The democrats have an uphill battle under the best of scenarios. It sure would be nice if they behaved as though they recognized that.

08/17/08 11:49 am

Some of Hil's supporters


Some of Hil's supporters like the idea of her as VP, but after they have thought it over (and seen how he treats her after the convention) they may decide to vote against an O/C ticket so she won't be stuck in a bad job. Many of her strongest PUMAs oppose the VP idea already; see blogs such as bitterpoliticz and hillaryis44.org

The only thing that will really solve the problem is Clinton/Obama. That gives instant unity and sixteen years in the White House.

It's a win/win for Obama. If Clinton wins in November he gets to fly around giving speeches as VP for 8 years, then a straight shot at POTUS in 2016. If she loses, he says it isn't his fault and picks up the pieces in 2012.

08/19/08 3:03 am

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <blockquote> <b> <i> <p> <br> <span> <img> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Images can be added to this post.

More information about formatting options

CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Copy the characters (respecting upper/lower case) from the image.