Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Clinton urging delegates to back Obama, not releasing them [Corrected]

Hillary Clinton told her convention delegates on a conference call last night that they should support Barack Obama.

"She did a call with delegates to thank them for all of their hard work during the campaign, to celebrate all we accomplished, and to urge them -- as she did on Saturday -- to do everything they can to elect Barack Obama," Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee confirmed.

UPDATE: I'd initially failed to grasp a technicality here: Clinton has not formally released her delegates.

Harold Ickes started the call, a Clinton aide said, saying they weren't being released, citing historical precedence we discussed and saying we wanted everyone to stay united to keep fighting for the issues.

A pledged delegate from San Francisco who was on the call, David Serrano Sewall, emails while Clinton expressed her support for Obama, Ickes said "delegates can do what they want, any delegate can, but wanted us to hang with Hillary for now."

The Clinton aide said there's no power play here: Clinton just wants to make sure her supporters are slated in state delegates and sent to Denver. Her camp pointed to precedent: Bradley in 2000 and Dean in 2004 didn't formally release their delegates until the convention itself.

Original here

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