(This story is developing as we speak, I think we're getting closer to the Obama campaign's process on this. Check out the Bee story and keep an eye out for more stories in print tomorrow. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
On Monday, juls wrote about how the campaigns could "prune" their delegate lists. I didn't pay much attention, but perhaps I should have. Here is the new list.
Today, I learned that I have been pruned out of my delegate race. I will say that I didn't really expect to win. There were people in my district that were better organized and better known (Chris Daly). And they both made the cut. However, I didn't figure the campaign to whom I donated money, and to whom I traveled to two different states for, would decide that I wasn't loyal enough. Heck, I spent March 4 working for Buffy Wicks (the CA field director) in Texas at the Election Hotline.
I understand that the Obama campaign is wary of the Clinton campaign picking off some of their pledged delegates, but you would figure that the least they could do would be to cross reference their donation rolls and their volunteer lists.
I understand that Obama cut about 1000 of his delegate candidates, compared to about 20 for Clinton. If Barack Obama wanted to increase participation and activism amongst youth leaders, cutting leaders in the California Young Dems and other youth leaders wasn't the best way to start.
So, if you were "pruned", I feel your pain.
UPDATE: I want to add one thing about this process. Specifically, this is a function of the Obama campaign, and if they expect to get any more time or money from me, I need to hear some sort of reasonable answer from the campaign.
I want to thank some folks from the CDP for letting me know and talking about the issue. The CDP has no power over this, but they will get some of the blame for being the messenger. The party deserves blame for many things, but this isn't one of them.
UPDATE 2: I did some more research on the party's website, and I think I had the numbers a bit off. Clinton cut around 40-50 of her approximately 950 delegate candidates. Obama cut about 950 of about 1700 candidates. Somebody was getting paranoid...is that you Axelrod?
UPDATE 3: The SacBee now has a story about the delegate pruning. I sound very heartbroken, perhaps a little more than I actually am, but, ah well, dramatic license and all.
I also got an email from somebody familiar with the process. Essentially they said that the Chicago folks had the California Obama team ask the volunteers running the caucus to cut down for logistical and convention reasons. The results were less than exceptional, but better than the initial plan: trimming it to the minimum three people per slot.
UPDATE 4: k/o is right in the comments. Who am I kidding, I'll still give Obama money and my time. And perhaps I was a bit out of line when I said otherwise. However, as Lucas points out, it's a pretty top-down move from a campaign that is supposed to be bottom-up. I can forgive mistakes and move on, but I still think the campaign needs to send out a message to its grassroots supporters that it values and respects them. |
