There is one clear benefit to Hillary Clinton dropping out of the Democratic Primary race: We won’t have to see/hear/watch Terry McAuliffe anymore.

He’s become Hillary’s master hype man. Before and after every primary, he pops up on TV to scrub facts, chase away scary numbers, and airbrush Hillary’s latest gaffs. While he hasn’t quite earned any Swift Boat merit badges, he knows how to bullshit better than anyone else.

The man has probably been on TV a billion times since last fall. So it’s understandable if the man has started running out of things to say. As his performance yesterday on “Meet the Press” proved, McAuliffe has finally hit a wall.

McAuliffe argued that Michigan should be counted because, well, Obama chose to take his name off the ballot. So why hurt Hillary for what was clearly Obama’s decision? And then he went on to evoke the Buffalo Bills—a Russert obsession—and compared the team to Hillary’s chances for the nomination. Not a good move:

“OK, but well, I’ll just say it’s not impossible. Did you count the Buffalo Bills out in 1993 when the Houston Oilers were beating them by 32 points in the third quarter?,” McAuliffe asked.

And then later, McAuliffe moves on to declare that Russert’s father would basically want Hillary to continue.

“But it’s not impossible for Hillary Clinton to win. A lot of people have said that. Big Russ, if he were sitting here today, nothing’s impossible. Jack McAuliffe, if he were with us today, they both–they’re probably both in heaven right now, Tim, probably having a scotch, looking down and saying, you know what, this fight goes on. It’s good for the Democratic Party. Millions of people coming out to vote. It’s exciting.”

I know Hillary does well with seniors. But this is ridiculous. Now she has the dead people vote? What’s next? Will we see ads with a CGI-enhanced John Lennon endorsing Hillary?

Dear Hillary:

I am sure that I am not part of your PowerPoint presentation. I don’t count in your world. I’m a marginally over-educated white boy who doesn’t think much of your gas-tax relief plan, your fighter cred, nor your previous attempts at YouTube viral video. I don’t buy your big-state argument, your blue-collar argument, nor any arguments whatsoever to count Michigan. I don’t think you’re a fighter. I think you are just desperate.

But forget all that. I need you to quit sometime today. I bet a co-worker that you would. The bet is substantial—way more than what I would gain from your gas-tax holiday—two appetizers and two beers! That’s like at least $20. As you can see a lot is riding on this bet.

You’re probably thinking that I’m a total fool for making this bet, that I just don’t know you—that you really are a fighter. Well, I had my reasons. I figured the superdels would flock to Obama [which they are kinda starting to], that you’d tire of loaning yourself money, and that the press would turn against you. I think I’m closer to being right than you’d want to admit. I mean did you see the cover of Time? That has to hurt. I figured you wouldn’t want to put up with that kind of humiliation.

Please say I’m not wrong. I really could use those two beers and two orders of nachos.

You have about 7 hours to quit. Think about all the free time you’ll have tomorrow.

Please consider my plight.

Sincerely yours in 2016,

Jason Cherkis

Just kidding. But while you’re waiting, why not consider someone else who’s yet to officially quit but still has no chance whatsoever?

It’s everything I ever feared: The eyes of the world are on a Lake County, Ind., election.

Lake County—fondly referred to by its denizens simply as “the Region”—is where I was born and raised. And it’s pretty much where I got my conception of what urban politics is all about.

If you’ve been watching cable TV, you’ve heard all about how Gary mayor Rudy Clay has promised to deliver big numbers to Barack Obama, for instance by busing high school kids to early-voting sites. What’s not mentioned as much is that he’s the county Democratic chairman, which means he essentially controls the election apparatus. He, have no doubt, is responsible for the fact that the vote has not been announced on time.

There’s absolutely no reason to hold off on announcing returns while you count absentee ballots. But holding back the vote, in fact, is a longstanding Lake County tradition.

Why might Rudy Clay hold back the vote? Well, back in the day, you needed time to destroy ballots from “bad” precincts and stuff boxes from the “good” ones. These days, with electronic voting, it’s a lot harder to tamper with the vote. But you can still be a big, swinging dick by playing kingmaker and keeping the nation on edge—and preventing Hillary Clinton from declaring victory at a decent hour.

But there’s no doubt that election shenanigans aren’t too far in the Region’s past. For a reminder, just look at Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens‘ opinion upholding the Indiana Voter ID act last week. For part of his reasoning, he cites the 2003 mayoral primary in East Chicago, which is just west of Gary, as proof “that not only is the risk of voter fraud real but that it could affect the outcome of a close election.”

That election pitted Robert Pastrick, mayor of East Chicago for decades and often cited as head of the last true political machine in America, against challenger and city councilman George Pabey. Pastrick won the primary, but courts held that enough questions were raised about the veracity of certain absentee ballots that a new election was ordered, which Pabey won. (Try to set aside for a second Stevens’ reasoning that alleged absentee ballot fraud justifies showing voter IDs at polling places.)

Fun aftermath: Several East Chicago political figures (notably not Pastrick) ended up in jail for a scheme dating back to Pastrick’s 1999 run that had city crews build new sidewalks for residents in exchange for votes. (For the record, my dad was a lawyer for the Pastrick administration for many years and helped argue the Pabey case. And, also for the record, Pabey isn’t exactly a paragon of ethical virtue.)

Anyway, welcome to the Region, America. Enjoy it while you’re here.

UPDATE, 12:42 A.M.: On CNN, anyway, they seem to have a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the Region’s demographics. The “north county” cities assumed to go big for Obama—Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting—aren’t the whole story. In a county of more than 480,000, those cities only account for less than half the county population; Gary’s population is less than 100,000. And Hammond and Whiting, in particular, have significant white blue-collar populations that are fertile ground for Clinton, not Obama, and the same goes for East Chicago, which is half Latino–together, they’re bigger than Gary. Bigger issue is that the rest of the county is more or less suburban—and even rural, down south of Crown Point and into Lowell and beyond. You’ve got middle- to upper-class suburbs in Schererville, St. John, Dyer, and Munster—probably pretty even Clinton/Obama; blue-collar burbs like Griffith, Highland, Lake Station, and Hobart (my hometown)—probably leaning Clinton. In other words, Obama folks—don’t expect any miracles out of Lake County.

UPDATE, 1:04 A.M.: Clay is currently making an utter fool of himself on CNN. What an absolute clown. No one points out that he controls the process. Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott says “the appearance of impropriety is high.”

UPDATE, 1:12 A.M.: Some poetry to cap your evening.

If Catholics prefer Hillary, and Guam is overwhelmingly Catholic, then how did Obama win Guam? Is it the islander connection—Obama being from Hawaii, which is the New York of Micronesia? Is it, as Slate suggests, that Catholics generally prefer Hillary because they don’t want to support a non-Caucasian candidate—which presumably isn’t an issue in Guam, where the majority of the island’s people and politicians are non-Caucasian?

a Catholic church in southern Guam

I’m still looking for my amusing Christmas photos of Santas riding on Guamanian rooftops, under blue blue skies; they’re around, but have gotten lost on my computer

As a former resident of that part of the world, I have sent off some emails to smart friends involved with Micronesian politics to see what they think about Obama’s seven-vote victory. I’m curious what they have to say about it.

In the culmination of a nearly four-month, sometimes controversial, and always confusing process, the D.C. Democratic State Committee last night selected the last three members of the District’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention in August. Councilmembers Muriel Bowser of Ward 4 and Jack Evans of Ward 2 both earned voting slots, as did Ward 1 lawyer and fundraiser Jim Hudson. Political strategist Tom Lindenfeld, a Ward 4 resident, was voted in as an alternate.

The slots filled last night were all “pledged” slots, which could only be filled by candidates who had filed papers pledging their support to a particular candidate. Three of the four slots were pledged to Barack Obama, based on the results of the District’s primary vote. Only the seat Evans won was pledged to Hillary Clinton. The Clinton seat was also the only one that drew a contested vote; folks who had signed up to challenge Bowser, Hudson, and Lindenfeld all withdrew their names before the vote.

Evans’ competition was Franklin Garcia, a committee member and technology consultant. His speech to his fellow members before the vote—which, according to witnesses (it happened before LL arrived), focused an awful lot on what a great candidate Obama is—failed to win him the Clinton slot: He lost 52-6.

Other than that, the drama was minor. There was a bit of uproar when Lindenfeld, a guy who has tended to stay behind the scenes over the years, stood for election by acclamation; one member declined to get with the program, saying “That’s unfair….I don’t know who the hell he is!” She was drowned out when the time to vote arrived.

Also there was an attempted solution to the Case of the Missing Ballots from the prior month’s meeting. Committee member John Capozzi put forth a motion that would have each committee member rise and tell their votes for the at-large unpledged delegates to the crowd; it would also require the state committee to keep ballots for at least 21 says after the vote. A vote on the motion was postponed to next month.

The full list of delegates is after the jump.

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Mayor Adrian M. Fenty might be a Barack Obama supporter, but his hand-picked education czar is opting for a different approach, at least when it comes to improving schools. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, in comments on Thursday night at a gathering of the Korean-American Coalition’s D.C. chapter, endorsed the education plan of Arizona Republican John McCain “far and away” over those of either Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Rhee, in a speech at Tony Cheng’s Restaurant in Chinatown, referred to herself as a “card-carrying Democrat” (LL forgot to ask to see the card), yet endorsed McCain’s approach based on his willingness to reauthorize the controversial “No Child Left Behind” legislation. Both Clinton and Obama have been highly critical of the law and its effects.

“I think they’re pandering, quite frankly, to the teachers’ unions and other folks,” she said.

In comments after the speech, Rhee explained that her support for NCLB arose from her belief in accountability and the need for hard goals for school systems. She called herself as a “huge proponent” of the federal law and said she was “incredibly disappointed” with the lack of Democratic support for the law—though she did say she had a “laundry list” of things she would change with the statute.

Why might an urban school superintendent favor No Child Left Behind? Well, for a cynical view, look at the political cover it provides: Long-failing public schools are required to be “restructured,” a process Rhee is going through currently with several DCPS schools. Without such a federal impetus, big changes—which can extend to the brink of privatization—can be difficult to justify to parents. “Blame NCLB” certainly is a handy refrain to bring to parent meetings explaining the need for such drastic measures.

Wired has the best stuff on the juicy scandal still percolating with D.C.-based Women’s Voices. Women’s Vote, which admits to being behind some high-tech “anonymous” phone calls going to primarily black households in North Carolina. The calls from a Lamont Williams imply improper voter registration and give instructions on re-registering, only the voters there have not necessarily improperly registered and the instructions to wait for a packet in the mail and send in another application would put voters well past the deadline to vote in Tuesday’s primary. Virginia State Police investigated similar robo-calls before VA’s primaries last February, also sourced to Women’s Voices. Women Vote.

The group’s president (and Duke grad, no less) is Page Gardner of Northern Virginia, who has been making the rounds in this hamster-wheel primary to talk about the impact of single women. According to the Institute for Southern Studies and OpenSecrets.org, Gardner has contributed $6,700 to Hillary Clinton in one form or another in 2005 and 2006. Her total contribution to the Obama campaign: $0.

Gardner does have a response to all of this: “We apologize for any confusion our calls may have caused.” That may not be enough for the Attorney General.

Breaking news from Kokomo, IN: Obama’s got game. But with plenty of folks calling the state a must-win for the Illinois senator, one hopes his rebound skills aren’t confined to the basketball court.

City issues don’t seem to come up too frequently in the presidential campaigns. Sure, policies pertaining to health care, housing, and the economy all affect urban environments. But, they also affect suburban and rural places as well. Somehow, my name got put on a media list to receive press releases from Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It’s a lot of Bing! Bing! Bing! all day long, which I typically ignore. But one press release from earlier today caught my eye:

At an engagement in Philadelphia this morning, Clinton discussed her plan to “cut the murder rate in big cities in half and put 100,000 new police officers on America’s streets…Hillary would also invest $1 billion competitive grant program to reduce the number of repeat offenders and the size of the population in prisons and juvenile lock-ups nationwide. In addition, Hillary will partner with states and communities to support early intervention programs that would prevent at-risk youth from engaging in criminal activity.”

Now, I can’t recall anything coming from Barack Obama’s campaign that even compares to this city-focused initiative. Read the rest of this entry »

The mystery of the missing delegate ballots has been solved. This morning, Democratic State Committee member Stephen P. Gorman took the blame.

“I was the one who threw away the ballots.” Gorman wrote in an e-mail he sent to the committee’s membership this morning. “…I did so because I was unaware of the custom and mandate of the availablity of these particular election ballots. In all three years on the committee, no ballots was ever made available for review UNLESS there was a challenge made.”

In his letter, Forman explains he asked committee chair Anita Bonds what to do with the ballot box shortly after the vote; “Upon reflection, I can say I did not make myself entirely clear to her that the box contained ballots [when I asked] ‘what do I do with these?’” he wrote. “It is entirely reasonable that she thought I was talking only about the box and shrugged as if ‘whatever’.”

Gorman knocked down any rumors that there were unsavory motives attached to the ditching of the ballots. “There were no back room agreements or anything of the sort,” he wrote. “None of the leadership or other persons involved Thursday night had anything to do with my decision. I made an incorrect decision based on my own three year experience as vice-chair of the Party Organization and Function Committee which assumed that ALL ballots are secret.”

In a rather stunning display of accountability (or perhaps merely seizing the opportunity to slough off a thankless job) Gorman submitted his resignation from the state committee, writing, “This is a clear case of misfeasance on my part.”

LL was unable to reach Gorman for comment earlier today. Full letter after the jump.

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Last Thursday evening, members of the D.C. Democratic State Committee met and elected four delegates and various other party positions. In the hottest contest of the night, Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.—a Hillary Clinton supporter at the time—edged out Barack Obama backer Miriam Sapiro by two votes.

Now, despite the close tally, no one has challenged the results. However, because of the politiciking behind the scenes, several folks—including LL—were interested in inspecting the ballots for various reasons, perhaps to see where party members’ loyalties lay or to thank members who supported a particular candidate. Having the ballots open to inspection is a practice that had been extended to the public in the past.

Well, not this year. The ballots have gone missing.

Committee spokesperson David Meadows said yesterday that the ballots “got mixed up, and somebody threw them away….From what I understand they were mistakenly trashed.”

What are the rules concerning the ballots? No one seems to be able to point LL toward a particular rule mandating that ballots be kept for a particular period of time. However, several committee members are hold that the trashing violates well-established party doctrine that there be no secret ballots at any point in the delegate selection process after the public primaries.

DCDSC chair Anita Bonds denies that any rules were broken by discarding the ballots, saying there was no provision in the local delegate selection plan for preserving the ballots. “It didn’t occur that we should be creating some sort of special rule for counting and handling of the ballots,” she said yesterday.

In fact, she says, there’s no saying where the ballots are: “The box may actually be in a corner somewhere; I don’t know.”

Could there be an ulterior motive? Well, those folks who didn’t get with the Obama ticket and voted for Thomas over Sapiro might have been in for some backlash from the Barack camp that they can now easily avoid. (Read tomorrow’s LL for more on that.)

Former DCDSC member Phil Pannell says that standard practice in the past was to keep the ballots for at least 30 days following these sorts of elections.

Pannell sent a letter to committee members decrying the loss of the ballots. The committee, he wrote, “should never be in a situation when DCDCS election ballots are not available for public review…..Democrats have a right to know how they voted….For the Democrats in DC not to have the opportunity to review the April 3rd ballots is not only unfair, it is an obscene outrage.”

Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. just sent out this press release:

Thomas Withholds Endorsement of Democratic Presidential Candidate to Highlight District, Ward Issues

Washington, DC – Ward 5 Councilmember Harry “Tommy” Thomas, Jr. announced today that he will refrain from officially endorsing either Democratic presidential candidate until he can discuss with each their positions statehood rights for the District of Columbia and key urban issues such as crime, unemployment, and economic revitalization of our inner city neighborhoods.

“I am honored to represent the residents of the District of Columbia in what is the most important election facing our nation in a lifetime,” said Councilmember Thomas. “I was elected to represent the District as an unpledged delegate, and I take that role seriously. I will evaluate each candidate and their viewpoints on providing DC with the voting rights we deserve. I will compare and assess each candidate’s plans for partnering with the Mayor and Council to bring jobs and economic revitalization to all corners of this great city. And most importantly, I will confer with my residents and fellow members of the Democratic party before making my decision,” said Thomas.

LL says: Hard to see him staying in the Hillary camp after backing out…

This morning, the Post and the Examiner both got wise to the intrigue of the D.C. Democratic delegate count—or at least the question of Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.’s presidential loyalties.

To recap: Thomas had been an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter for months. Last Thursday, he ran for one of two unpledged add-on delegate spots and won, leading to heightened questions about his commitment to Hillary.

Thomas told LL after the vote, “I haven’t changed. I’m consistent.” But earlier in the week, Thomas staffer Ayawna Chase had told Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta that her boss had “changed his mind after hearing from his constituents,” according to Panetta’s comments on a Daily Kos posting. Then, yesterday, the D.C. Democrats sent out a spreadsheet listing all of the D.C. delegates along with their presidential preferences. Thomas was marked as supporting Clinton. Then, on Monday evening, a revised spreadsheet was sent out, along with a note explaining that Thomas “was incorrectly listed as a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton should read and tallied as ‘Unpledged’.”

Thomas said to LL this morning that he still hasn’t “changed officially.” He explained the spreadsheet change thusly: “What I wanted to do is honor the process of being an unpledged delegate.”

OK, whatever.

Here’s some interesting tidbits: According to Thomas spokesperson Vicky Leonard-Chambers, her boss is meeting with Clinton today and had mentioned potentially attending an Barack Obama event this evening. She also says Thomas hopes to meet with Obama himself soon.

“He’s doing what he said he would do, which is talk to both before he decides,” she says.

In a town where Barack Obama got better than 75 percent of the vote, this wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did anyway: Hillary Clinton picked up an extra District delegate to the Democratic National Convention last night. For that, Obama supporters have only their own to blame.

The D.C. Democratic State Committee met in the John A. Wilson Building for almost three hours to select a pair of unpledged add-on “superdelegates.” More than 20 signed up to run for the two slots, voted on by the 80-odd members of the committee. “Unpledged” in this case is a bit misleading; most delegate candidates’ presidential preferences were already widely known to voters.

The days and weeks before the vote saw furious lobbying of the 80-some committee members—especially on the Obama side—to sway votes to their presidential candidate. Obama organizers hoped to prevent a split vote by steering support to two delegate candidates: Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander, a longtime state committee member and favorite of the old guard, and lawyer Miriam Sapiro, a relative unknown favored by the grassroots types.

Though a number of the 25 candidates on the ballot withdrew before the vote, seven Obama supporters ended up running, while only two Clinton supporters only three Clinton supporters only two Clinton supporters stood: Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., Ward 3 resident Mary Ann Miller, and lawyer and ex-council staffer Aimee Occhetti.

Clinton’s name never came up in Thomas’ brief remarks before the vote; he instead chose to talk up his own qualifications and big-picture issues. “The issue is what are we going to do when we get to Denver that best represents the District of Columbia,” he said. (Rumors had swirled that Thomas planned to switch to Obama, but Thomas knocked those down after the vote: “I haven’t changed,” he says. “I’m consistent.”)

The actual candidates’ names rarely came up, in fact. The division within the Obama camp was briefly aired when candidate Linda Nguyen rose to say, “I only have 2 minutes to convince you to vote for me…not someone you promised the mayor you’d vote for.” That earned her hearty boos from the crowd. (Line of the night, though, came from Occhetti: “If you call me at 3 a.m., I will definitely try to answer the phone.”)

In the end, Alexander cruised to victory, but Sapiro came up two votes short; she got 22 to Thomas’ 24. Check after the jump for a full tally of the results (i.e., which Obama folks didn’t get with the program).

Delegate Potpourri

• Unsurprisingly, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown took the two spots reserved for PLEOs—party leaders and elected officials. Shadow Rep. Mike Panetta appeared on the original ballot but withdrew before the vote. In remarks after the vote, Gray said, “My life’s aspiration has been to be a PLEO. I’ve finally arrived!” Panetta says he plans to run for an alternate pledged at-large spot set to be selected on May 3. Barring that, committee chair Anita Bonds announced to the crowd that Panetta would be serving as the delegation’s Official Blogger in Denver. Says Panetta: “One way or another, I’ll be there.”
• Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans showed early in the meeting to greet the crowd but quickly left. Since the decision came down that both PLEOs were to be Obama-pledged, Evans did not appear on the ballot. Gray announced after voting that Evans would be running at the May 3 meeting for a pledged at-large slot for Clinton; Gray lobbied the crowd on Evans’ behalf.

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