Why Clinton floated the delegate switch idea

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - Thou shall not covet thy rival’s delegates.

It’s a nice a idea, but far from political reality, much less a commandment.

Delegates aren’t off limits, at least not like your neighbor’s wife.

They’re free to be coveted and wooed. And they’re not under any obligation to stay monogamous.

Superdelegates (the elected officials such as senators who have an automatic vote at the convention) and pledged delegates (those chosen in primaries and caucuses) are in fact, free to shop around.

And Sen. Hillary Clinton was correct this week when she pointed that out.

Under Democratic National Committee rules, even the pledged delegates, or as she called them “so-called pledged delegates,” are legally free to vote for whomever they choose at the convention.

And it is a very long time — five months — between now and the opening of the convention.

“At the convention, while it is assumed that the delegate will cast their vote for the candidate they are publicly pledged to, it is not required,” a DNC fact sheet says. The party’s delegate selection rules say that delegates ought to “in good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.”

Chosen for their loyalty
But any suggestion that pledged delegates might forsake their candidate seems a long-shot possibility.

Cartoons A look at the superdelegates and the Democratic presidential race.

Each campaign recruits loyal and reliable people to be on their slates of delegates. The Obama pledged delegates are Obama true believers; likewise the Clinton pledged delegates.

The pledged delegates are politically active people — state legislators, past and future candidates for local office, politically connected lawyers, labor union operatives — for whom there'd be hell to pay if they reneged on their pledge.

State Rep. Jolene Ivey, an Obama pledged delegate from Maryland, said Clinton has not contacted her to ask her to switch.

And if Clinton did call her, or show up on her front door to persuade her to switch? “What words would I use to say ‘no’? I’d thank her for calling, but I’d make it very clear that my allegiance is to Sen. Obama,” said Ivey.

Video Clinton's lessons from childhood March 27: Watch Andrea Mitchell's interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton as she talks about her parents' influence on her. Nightly News

“It is hard for me to imagine a scenario in which I’d agree to something like that. Only if Sen. Obama asked me to do it,” said Ivey. “And I can’t imagine why the person who is in first place would ask me to vote for the person who’s in second place.” If there were an effort to woo Obama delegates “it sounds pretty slimy to me.”

Loyalty to Obama
“I am with Obama to the day I die!!” emphatically e-mailed New Hampshire Obama delegate Ann McLane Kuster. “We just had 60 New Hampshire Women for Obama for a meeting at my office all FIRED UP and READY TO GO!! We are organizing a bus trip to Pennsylvania for April 12, phone banks all across New Hampshire, postcard house parties…”

As for Clinton, Kuster said, “she is dreaming!”

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