April 10, 2008

Survivor: Obama

There were plenty of losers in this week's Obama delegate lottery, as we pointed out Thursday, more than 800 in all. Among those Obama booted from running as his delegates this weekend were the president of the California Young Democrats, a blogger for Calitics and the University of California, Davis campus coordinator for Obama.

The Obama camp remains mum on what criteria they used. From the lists at the California Democratic Party web site, it appears that they wanted to restrict many districts to 20 contenders, a significant slashing considering some Bay Area districts had 70 or more Obama supporters signed up to run this Sunday.

Not everyone missed the cut, obviously. The three-person slate of Obama volunteers who have run the Sacramento for Obama operation since last year -- Kim Mack, Nate Osburn and Serena Kirk -- remain on the list. The Obama folks also kept Tim Malone, a Davis activist who told us he thought he'd never see the day when an African American would emerge as a major-party presidential nominee.

There remains a healthy share of Capitol insiders on the Clinton and Obama lists. Teamsters lobbyist Barry Broad is still running to become an Obama delegate, as is correctional officers' lobbyist Paula Treat. Broad has given $1,000 to Obama and $500 to Clinton, according to the Federal Election Committee. Treat gave $2,300 to Obama.

Adam Keigwin, an aide to Sen. Leland Yee, and Gavin Payne, chief deputy to State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, are also in the running for Obama. Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, remains on the Obama list.

Steve Maviglio, the well-known spokesman for Speaker Fabian Núñez and former Gov. Gray Davis, is in contention for a Clinton seat. He's running on a ticket with Karen Skelton, a former Clinton White House aide, and the two have a web site. (Maviglio, once a three-term New Hampshire legislator, is also sending mailers and using robo-calls to gather support.)

And then there are those with strong party relationships. Literally. Marina Torres, the sister of California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres, remains on the Obama list in the 1st Congressional District that extends from West Sacramento to the Oregon border.

Incidentally, the Obama campaign slashed that district from about 50 delegate hopefuls down to 20, cutting out people such as Ryan Loney, a second-year student at UC Davis who served as the school's Obama campus coordinator.

Loney, 20, said he went to Philadelphia to volunteer for Obama and registered students on campus on a daily basis leading up to the Feb. 5 primary. He's also planning a May trip to Oregon to help Obama.

Foreseeing that too many delegate contenders could be a problem for the Obama campaign to handle, Loney and UCD students backing Obama self-restricted their entries and appointed Loney as their lone male representative to compete Sunday. In fact, Loney also got the endorsement of the Humboldt State students for Obama, who opted not to send someone.

Loney said he won a pre-caucus vote held in Davis last weekend, taking 42 of 60 votes in what was supposed to be a precursor to this weekend's actual caucuses to winnow the field.

"I mean, I'm not going to stop supporting Sen. Obama or give up on the campaign," Loney said. "I just think it's a really dumb decision and a poor reflection since he's trying to run a new type of campaign. It's not supposed to be the old style of politics or back-room decisions. And I think somebody made a really bad decision. It's a really poor reflection on what Sen. Obama stands for."

STATS: Based on estimates provided Wednesday by state party spokesman Bob Mulholland and the Clinton campaign, the statistical breakdown on the delegate applications were as follows: The party received 2,850 applications, and 250 people removed their names, while 200 filed duplicates or invalid forms. Out of the 2,400 remaining, about 1,000 applied for 134 Clinton delegate seats and 1,400 applied for 107 Obama seats. The Clinton campaign says it removed 36 out of 1,000, which means Obama removed 864 out of 1,400.

Posted by Kevin Yamamura on April 10, 2008 1:03 PM