Local backers irked as Clinton, Obama keep them from becoming national delegates

Sen. Barack Obama has built a reputation for developing grass-roots support for his presidential campaign, but he blocked hundreds of local-level California backers this week from competing to become national delegates in his name, angering those who had been organizing for weeks to win a ticket to the Denver convention.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton also cut her list, but by not nearly the magnitude that Obama did, slicing about three dozen people whose motives the campaign questioned, according to John Emerson, a longtime Democratic consultant who advised the Clinton delegate decisions.

The moves highlight the growing anxiety that both campaigns have about the loyalties of potential convention delegates, as well as the vast number of people who signed up for precious few slots this year in a Democratic race that remains undecided.

"I'm really surprised at who they cut," said Brian Leubitz, an Obama supporter and political blogger who was dropped in his San Francisco congressional district. "I don't want to say why. I assume it's because they're concerned about people being loyal at the convention. I've written stuff on Calitics (a political blog) forever in favor of him, I've traveled to Nevada and Texas for him, and I've given him money, so it's a little surprising."

Obama officials did not return several calls and e-mails Wednesday.

Democrats statewide are running Sunday in local caucus meetings to fill 241 pledged delegate seats in Denver, where they are expected to carry out the wishes of California voters in the February primary. A record number of applicants – 2,850 in all – signed up this year to participate in a party process that is typically ignored by the electorate.

Obama and Clinton, under party rules, had the right to review the lists of delegate applicants and veto anyone without explanation by a Monday deadline.

While most attention has been focused on the unpledged superdelegates, the campaigns had begun to scrutinize even the pledged delegates with the nomination still in limbo. National party rules discourage, but do not prohibit, pledged delegates from changing their vote before the convention.

"Because it's more competitive this year, there are all sorts of quirks and features of the system that people hadn't paid much attention to before," said David Karol, a University of California, Berkeley, political science professor and expert on the nomination process. "This kind of thing didn't matter before."

The state party processed the final lists Wednesday, and many Obama supporters learned they had been dropped only by checking the state party Web site.

Even leaders of statewide Democratic organizations weren't safe. Rocky Fernandez, 30, president of the California Young Democrats, learned Wednesday afternoon that he was no longer an Obama delegate candidate. He said he had not received a call from the campaign.

Fernandez said he has five to six Obama T-shirts in his closet, including a green St. Patrick's Day version, not to mention the Obama bumper sticker that's been glued to his car since the campaign began. The Hayward resident said he donated to the Obama campaign as soon as the Web site opened, and he went to New Hampshire and Nevada to volunteer.

"Obama has done a great job asking Americans, especially young Americans, to get involved," Fernandez said. "And for some reason, the campaign just told them that they don't need to bother. I think it sends the wrong message, and I'm kind of in the dark about it."

On the other hand, Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento and an ex-supporter of former Sen. John Edwards, made the cut as an Obama delegate.

Of the initial 2,850 applicants, 450 pulled out or did not properly fill out the paperwork, said Bob Mulholland, a California Democratic Party spokesman. The Obama and Clinton campaigns pared the remaining 2,400 hopefuls by 900 to 1,500. Mulholland wouldn't say how many each campaign deleted, but with Clinton officials claiming they axed 36, that leaves 864 prospective Obama delegates bounced by Obama officials.

"There were a variety of reasons, and one is of course logistical," Mulholland said. "Given that these are volunteer-run (caucuses), the Obama campaign in particular decided it needed to put a little more order into it. The campaigns can tell you their various reasons."

Though the Clinton cuts were few, they left some locals frustrated.

Harold Fong, a Sacramento County Board of Education member, was dropped as a Clinton candidate despite serving as a local phone-bank coordinator for the past two months, he said.

Fong has been to the last three Democratic conventions as a delegate, and he backed Edwards before choosing Clinton when Edwards dropped out. He said he immediately threw his support behind Clinton.

Fong had planned to have about 50 people show up, including many from the Asian American community, he said. He is a member of the Service Employees International Union, which has endorsed Obama.

"Someone else told me today that they didn't want SEIU members to be delegates because they'll easily flip on her (Clinton), but it's not like every union member votes the same way," Fong said. "We're not monolithic."

Emerson, a Los Angeles-based consultant who has advised presidential candidates dating back to Gary Hart in 1984, said the Clinton campaign did not remove people based solely on union membership or even on donations given to Obama or other candidates.

"We didn't strike people because we didn't know them," Emerson said. "Our operating policy was to strike them if we had a good reason to believe they wouldn't be loyal on the floor."

While the decisions left many hopefuls frustrated, Karol said most voters likely believe they selected delegates on the same day they cast their primary vote in February.

The California Republican Party, for instance, allows candidates to handpick their own delegates.

"If people voted for a candidate, it seems only reasonable for campaigns to have input on who these people are," Karol said.

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