Wednesday, June 11, 2008

More Add-On Delegate News

With press interest waning for the remaining delegate news for the Democratic Primary, finding quick and reliable sources for this information is becoming more difficult.

Demconwatch is doing a great job, and they are also announcing their new website address: www.demconwatchblog.com, although the old address demconwatch.blogspot.com also works as well.

From their site I've been able to find the add-on delegates from Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Vermont from this past weekend.

Pennsylvania was the third of three tests for Senator Obama's case for party unity from the past weekend.

In one test, Kentucky, he was awarded the add-on delegate despite being trounced by Clinton in the primary.

In another test, Texas, he was awarded two of three add-on delegates and was able to engineer a compromise to keep a Clinton supporter, female and labor (AFL-CIO) leader--all wrapped up in one person--on as an add-on delegate and then convince her to support him at the Convention.

The last test, Pennsylvania, did not go as well for Obama. This site shows the complete list of Pennsylvania delegates to the National Convention, and displays the names of the three new unpledged add-on delegates:

John Street
Jack Wagner
Lynne Abraham

Doing some further research, we can determine that two of these add-on delegates (Street and Abraham) are Clinton supporters, while Wagner is an Obama supporter.

Street endorsed Clinton all the way back in July of 2007, according to this Clinton campaign press release.

Wagner endorsed Obama in April when Obama was gearing up for the Pennsylvania primary. As a Vietnam vet and Western Pennsylvania figure, Wagner's endorsement at the time was seen as very helpful to Obama's credibility with the demographic base of rural Pennsylvania.

Abraham's loyalties are harder to find but this Pennsylvania blog did post that Abraham was listed as a Clinton delegate on the state convention ballot for delegate selection to the national convention.

A 2-1 Clinton win in Pennsylvania among add-on delegates really was not that surprising given her victory in the state and her ownership of the Pennsylvania political machine, but in the context of Senator Obama becoming the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, expressing a call for party unity around him as the leader, and needing a victory in Pennsylvania in the fall, it would have been much more fruitful for him to have picked up all three of these delegates as a sign of support for his candidacy.

Minnesota and Vermont add-on delegates will be posted in the next post.

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