Dissatisfaction Over Obama Slate Lingers On
Virginia Democrats love to snicker about the internal divisions that have plagued the state Republican Party in recent years. Now, they've got their own turmoil.
Some Democrats are fuming over how the state party conducted elections at its convention in Hampton on Saturday.
About 150 Democrats were vying for one of a dozen remaining delegate slots to go to the national convention in support of Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Before the vote, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's (D) political staff worked with Obama's campaign to identify a slate of candidates they wanted to go to Denver.
But many delegates at the state convention rebelled against the slate, instead opting to vote for individual candidates. The election resulted in some heated moments.
After several hours of vote counting, party officials announced the slate had prevailed, but some delegates are questioning the results. Several of the unsuccessful candidates have contacted the Washington Post. They say they are considering lodging a formal complaint against the party.
"Something needs to be done," said Cauline Yates, 54, an Obama supporter from Charlottesville, who was not on the slate. "Rules were broken."
Yates, a co-founder of a group called Charlottesville for Obama, said she made a motion at one point Saturday afternoon to change the rules so slates were not allowed.
State Party Chairman C. Richard Cranwell, she said, ordered a voice vote. Cranwell ruled Yates motion failed. Yates said she then demanded a formal vote, such as a show of hands, but said Cranwell refused.
"People didn't know who they were voting for," Yates said.
Levar Stoney, executive director of the Virginia Democratic Party, responded, "Our party plan allows for the allowance of slates. They have been going on for a long time."
According to Virginia Democratic Party rules, which are posted on its website, "in any convention or caucus, any individual or group of Democrats may sponsor or endorse a slate of candidates for delegates to any convention. However, no slate may receive preferential treatment or a preferential place on a delegate selection ballot, nor may any slate be publicly identified on the ballot or otherwise as the 'official slate'...Participants must also be permitted to vote for individual delegate candidates."
At Saturday's convention, delegates received a letter from Obama expressing "strong support" for the candidates on the Obama-Kaine slate.
But several of the delegates not on the slate raised concerns about the vote-counting.
Party officials had to count hundreds of ballots, each of which contained about 150 names. Kaine's staff was observing the process. The Washington Post was told Saturday it was not allowed to monitor the vote-counting.
About 7:30 p.m. Saturday, as workers were removing the stage in the convention hall, Yates said a party official emerged from the area where the votes were being counted and said, "We aren't finished counting, but we are confident the slate won."
"How can they declare the slate had won, even before the votes were counted?" asked Yates, a concern echoed by several others on Sunday and Monday. "It was just so chaotic towards the end."
Stoney said the preliminary vote totals were announced before all the votes were counted because it was clear the slate had prevailed.
"We count slate votes first," Stoney said. "There is no use to keep counting when it is clear the slate won."
Stoney noted that Kaine and the Obama campaign put together a slate to make sure Virginia's delegation conformed to Democratic National Committee regulations on race and gender.
"The Obama campaign and the Clinton campaign worked very hard to meet these rigorous requirements put forward by the DNC to make sure our delegation looks like the Commonwealth of Virginia," Stoney said. "We will have one of the most diverse delegations we have seen in Virginia in a long, long time."
But several delegates demanded Monday that the party release a final vote count from Saturday. They want to know whether a second ballot should have been called.
While she and other unsuccessful delegate candidates ponder their next step, Yates said there is growing frustration with state party leadership. The bruised feelings come as Virginia Democrats are already struggling to rally supporters of New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) behind Obama.
"I am hanging in there to make sure Obama gets elected," Yates said. "After that is taken care of, there will be an assessment on whether I will help or volunteer for the state party ever again."
Stoney said he is confident the ongoing controversy won't hamper the party's efforts in the fall.
"One thing we can all agree on is we all want to make sure Virginia's 13 electoral votes go to Barack Obama and that Mark Warner goes to the Senate," Stoney said.
By Tim Craig |
June 16, 2008; 9:33 PM ET
| Category:
Election 2008/Local
,
Election 2008/President
,
Election 2008/U.S. Senate
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Tim Craig
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Timothy M. Kaine
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Posted by: AngryVADem | June 16, 2008 9:50 PM
"There is no use to keep counting when it is clear the slate won."
What?! I thought the Democratic Party mantra was "count every vote!"
Posted by: Not Gordon Hickey | June 16, 2008 11:32 PM
So the conclusion after talking to one person is there is dissatisfaction? So when do you print the headline, "Washington Post readers still unhappy with shoddy reporting" in response to this post?
Posted by: Not a Good Reporter | June 17, 2008 9:26 AM
Hey, Not a Good Reporter:
The posting said, "Several of the unsuccessful candidates have contacted the Washington Post. They say they are considering lodging a formal complaint against the party."
"Several" is not "one person". Sounds like the Post talked to several who are dissatisfied.
Posted by: Count Every Vote | June 17, 2008 10:24 AM
150 candidates, 14 winners, and the Post finds exactly one sore loser whining on the record. And it turns out she doesn't even know the rules. There wasn't going to be a second ballot in the delegate count; the top vote getters won.
Posted by: Not Leonard Downie | June 17, 2008 10:33 AM
As someone who was there as a congressional delegate, the only people confused were those who had never attended a convention before. Slates are absolutely the norm, and not a vast conspiracy.
It's wonderful that Sen Obama has motivated so many new people to volunteer and join the Democratic Party. We're just going to have some growing pains while these folks come into the process.
I'm sure that if Tim talked to delegates who had participated in previous caucuses he would have gotten a more reasoned response.
Posted by: Not Frank Wolf | June 17, 2008 10:52 AM
The slates were pushed at the district level also. Filled with party people and elected state officials.
they read their names before the vote against party rules.
The party lost a lot of people that just came into the process. But why do they care?
They can get some shill to push the agenda and do the work. Then the chosen few get to go to the party.
This has got to stop.
Posted by: wanda | June 17, 2008 10:56 AM
One of the problems with the McGovern Reforms is that they let every Democrat think that they have a say in everything; even if they have no idea what they are talking about.
5th Grade Math easily explains how you can declare a winner before all of the votes are counted. And, once you have a winner is it really necessary to go through the process of counting all of the remaining votes?
Another thing which only the Democrats would come up with is the lodging of the formal complaint. To whom do they lodge the formal complaint? I believe that it would be the people they are complaining about; unless they are planning to go to Denver to try not to have the At Large delegates seated. Won't that be fun.
If I'm Tim Kaine, I want as many delegates to be 100% with me in Denver as I can have. For anything that comes up. I want to know that I have that specific amount of leverage with which to bargain. Aunt Minnie from Lynchburg, who nobodyelse knows, and will vote for people based on the color of their clothes, is of absolutley no help to me.
If I'm Jeff Frederick, I want the same thing going to Saint Paul.
Marion Barry was right - Get over it! It's not about you!
Posted by: NoVA | June 17, 2008 11:18 AM
What, specifically, are the "Democratic National Committee regulations on race and gender"? Where are they listed?
Posted by: Curious | June 17, 2008 5:11 PM
Do the Democrats have quotas for jews, asians, hispanics, homosexuals, and gypsies, or just women and blacks?
Posted by: Anonymous | June 17, 2008 8:07 PM
Curious go to http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/pdfs/2008delegateselectionrules.pdf
Section 6 on page 6, and Section 7 on page 8.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 18, 2008 5:49 PM
This is embarassing. We had to chose between two affirmative action candidates and now they use the same standard to pick delegates.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 23, 2008 8:13 PM
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Way to go Virginia Democrats! Let's snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!