LANSING, Mich.—Behind-the-scene negotiations are wrapping up on who will be chosen Saturday to fill the state’s remaining Democratic National Convention seats.
As usual, competition for the remaining spots is running high. Union and party leaders traditionally get a large share of convention seats, but campaign activists are lobbying for spots as well.
Former Gov. James Blanchard, a Hillary Rodham Clinton Michigan co-chairman who won a delegate spot in April, said it’s always a complicated dance to whittle down the list of delegate hopefuls to the spots available.
“It’s a process of selecting people who have worked hard for the candidate in addition to the party leaders who are going to be important to winning in the fall,” Blanchard said Thursday. “It’s really difficult and agonizing, because there’s never enough slots.”
The slate of delegates has to be accepted by the campaigns of Barack Obama and Clinton, who each get a share of Michigan’s 128 pledged delegates. Although so far each delegate gets only half a vote, party leaders are hopeful the delegation’s full voting rights will be restored at the Aug. 25-28 convention in Denver.
Democratic activists in April selected 83 delegates based on the results of the state’s disputed Jan. 15 presidential primary, with 47 delegates going to Clinton. Most of the remaining delegates supported Obama but were elected as uncommitted delegates since Obama didn’t have his name on the ballot.
Under a formula proposed by the Michigan Democratic Party and approved last month by the Democratic National Committee’s rules committee, Obama is to get 59 of the state’s delegates overall while Clinton is to get 69. All of the uncommitted delegates chosen so far have agreed to support Obama now that he is the presumptive nominee, said state party spokeswoman Liz Kerr.
The Democratic State Central Committee on Saturday will choose 23 delegates for Obama and 22 delegates for Clinton, who has suspended her campaign and thrown her support behind the Illinois senator.
Edna Bell, Detroit coordinator for the campaign group Michiganders for Obama, said her organization wants to make sure those who worked hard for Obama in the winter and spring are rewarded.
But union legwork and dollars play a large role in Democratic victories in Michigan, one reason union leaders expect—and usually get—a fair share of the national convention delegate and superdelegate spots.
They’ve already nabbed about half a dozen of the uncommitted—now Obama—delegate spots filled in April.
Several top union officials also were chosen as Clinton delegates in April, including Michigan Federation of Teachers President David Hecker; Al Garrett, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 25; and International Union of Operating Engineers Vice President John Hamilton. At least half a dozen other union members also got Clinton delegate spots.
Six of the 27 Michigan superdelegate spots also are held by union leaders: Michigan AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Arthenia “Tina” Abbott, MEA Executive Director Lu Battaglieri, Joyce Lalonde of the National Education Association, Jeff Radjewski of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58, United Auto Workers Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Bunn and retired UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker.
When two more superdelegates are elected Saturday, they’re also expected to be union leaders: Teamsters President James Hoffa Jr. and UAW official Richard Long.
“We have some nationally important people here” who need to be included in the state delegation, Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney explained.
He noted that there’s always some horse trading involved in choosing delegates, but this year’s negotiations resulted in a mix similar to convention slates in earlier years.
“It’s akin to a gumbo that you cook over time,” Gaffney said. “Some people throw in chicken, some people throw in shrimp, and you come up with something everyone can stomach.”
———
EDITOR’s NOTE: Kathy Barks Hoffman heads the Lansing AP bureau and has covered Michigan politics since 1986.
———
On the Net:
Michigan Democratic Party:
