Obama Delegate Reversal Shows He’s a People-Powered Candidate

by Paul Hogarth, 2008-04-11

Barack Obama proved last night that he can be held accountable. On April 9th, the Obama campaign had angered his California supporters by removing 950 people from the upcoming delegate caucuses on Sunday. With a record number of Democratic activists running for delegate this year and with the delegate count at the National Convention actually making a difference, this move was condemned as blatantly undemocratic. Campaigns can legally remove such candidates for no reason, and the Hillary Clinton camp also removed about 50 names from their list of delegate candidates. The scale that Obama did it, however, was unprecedented – and threatened the notion that he is a people-powered candidate. But after overwhelming pressure from the grassroots that such a move was unacceptable, the Obama camp reversed course yesterday – instructing the California Democratic Party to allow anyone who filed to be an Obama delegate to run. By doing so, he effectively said: “this is your campaign, not mine.”

California delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be picked on Sunday at caucuses throughout the state. Each Congressional District will have an Obama caucus and a Clinton caucus, and any registered Democrat can attend and vote for who will be a “pledged delegate.” These delegates will attend the Convention in Denver, and vote for Obama or Clinton (based on which caucus they were elected from.)

Under the party rules, the Obama and Clinton campaigns can review the list of people in advance who are running to be pledged delegates – and scratch out those they don’t want. With the nomination battle as tight as it is, and with Hillary Clinton saying she will go after pledged Obama delegates to win the nomination, the Obama camp had very good reason to be paranoid. They wanted to be sure that the Obama caucuses didn’t elect a closet Clinton supporter, or else it could overturn the outcome.

In a few cases – like at least one woman in San Francisco – the Obama campaign removed people who were secretly supporting Clinton.

But they also deleted much more than the people who might bolt. Out of the 71 in Nancy Pelosi’s district who filed to be an Obama delegate (for only 3 slots), only 20 remained on Wednesday night. I was one of the twenty people left standing, but am running on a slate with two other candidates – Clemetine Clarke and Myrna Melgar. Clarke was removed from the list, and she was far from alone. In the East Bay, my old college friend Rocky Fernandez (who is president of California Young Democrats) was also removed.

People were left scratching their heads yesterday wondering why some were removed and others not. A few even cited conspiracy – a candidate from Los Angeles who’s active in the anti-war movement suggested the Obama campaign removed people who were too controversial, but a closer scrutiny of who was kept and who got booted didn’t support that theory. The state Democratic Party couldn’t answer any questions – they said they were simply delivering the bad news, and referred people to the campaigns.

The Obama campaign replied that too many people had filed to run for delegate, making the caucuses unsustainable. That argument didn’t hold much ground. Throughout this campaign, Obama has inspired millions of people to get engaged in the political process. Turnout at the Iowa caucuses, for example, had mushroomed over prior years. The California Democratic Party had even anticipated huge turnout on Sunday – by asking attendees to pre-register to speed up the process.

But this is where grassroots Obama supporters learned that, by complaining loudly when you’re upset at your candidate, you can hold him accountable. Angry activists flooded the campaign with phone calls. Bloggers kicked the operation into high gear to demand that the Obama supporters – not the campaign – pick the delegates. A group even started on Facebook to demand re-instatement of all people who filed to run. They had spent too many hours toiling away for Obama to not get a chance to attend the National Convention.

At 6:00 p.m. last night, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe sent out an e-mail to the California list – announcing that all candidates who had filed to be Obama delegates for the Sunday caucus would be reinstated. “There has been an extraordinary outpouring of grassroots support for Senator Obama in all 53 California Congressional districts,” he wrote. “We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the Senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the National Convention.”

What the Obama campaign effectively said was: “we trust you, because this is your campaign.” No more handpicking who will be delegates to the Convention, with top-down decisions that dictate who represents your community. If that means a long, chaotic caucus with 71 candidates instead of 20 – and hundreds or thousands of attendees – so be it. It’s called democracy – and in a democracy, everyone can get a shot to win.

For months, Obama has urged his supporters to take ownership of the campaign. He has said we will never get major change in this country without a people-powered movement. Cutting out delegate candidates to avoid a crowded caucus was anathema to that message, but by listening to the grassroots he reversed course. “Mistakes happen,” said Brian Leubitz – one of the 51 candidates in my district who was cut out. “For the last seven years we had a president who wouldn't admit mistakes and wouldn't correct mistakes. I'll be glad to have an administration who knows and acknowledges that they are fallible.”

Incredibly, the San Francisco woman who filed to be an Obama delegate – despite being a Clinton supporter – was also reinstated with the scores of legitimate Obama supporters. Was that a risky move? Of course, but the Obama campaign decided that they trust their supporters enough to weed people like that out themselves. Not allowing everyone a chance to participate would have tainted the process and disempowered people.

With all candidates reinstated for Sunday, they now must prove their grassroots appeal at the caucus – and that they will truly stay “pledged” to Obama when they go to Denver.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Obama caucus for the 8th Congressional District will be at SEIU Local 1021 (350 Rhode Island Avenue) on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The Clinton caucus will be at the Plumbers Union (1621 Market Street.)