The “Will of the Voters” Begins at Home

May 23, 2008

There is still talk of Michigan and Florida being seated due to the Clinton’s camp claims of disenfranchisement. What about the disenfranchisement of all the states who followed the rules and had no idea that the rules would basically be rendered meaningless. If the DNC allows these states to sit down at the convention, it will mean that DNC rules are worthless. Why have rules at all if they are not enforced? Clinton has made it clear that she is willing to have a floor fight to get these rule breaking states. It is up to the superdelegates to make things right and stop the disenfranchisement of voters in states that followed the rules from having their will, our will, from being overturned.

Hillary Clinton would have some leg to stand on if she had openly defied the DNC from the beginning and made it a crusade to stand behind Florida and Michigan from the very beginning. This was not the case. When she was asked why after all the other candidates had taken their names off that she left hers on, she replied that since the votes will not count it doesn’t matter if her name was on there or not.

She cannot have it both ways, now that she knows that due to unfair advantage she got more votes than all the other candidates. She signed onto the very system she now says is disenfranchising voters. Clinton is even comparing the DNC rules in Florida to what has been happening in Zimbabwe. Is she really making that comparison? Does she actually know people died? Is she aware there are 3 million or 25% of the population of Zimbabwe have become refugees in South Africa? Wow.

Hillary Clinton supporters including Woolsey and Migden are concerned about the “will of the people”. I am concerned that the “will of the people” means the will of Florida and Michigan voters for Hillary instead of the will of their own constituents right here in Marin, Sonoma, and San Francisco counties. Who is representing us in a state where Northern California always gets outvoted?

I am certainly not alone in my frustration. I hear from Obama supporters in her district. We are distraught that our representatives don’t care how we feel, the very people who are responsible for giving them their jobs. Joe Nation, candidate for State Senate, who was a big Clinton supporter, even he thinks it is her time to go.

Congressperson Lynn Woolsey really needs to come out and tell us whose will she is protecting by continuing to enable Hillary Clinton from dragging down the democratic party and our chances of beating Mccain. I believe that the “Will of the Voters” begins at home.

Our State Senator, Carole Migden, is also a superdelegate. She ran a poll and allowed comments on her campaign site, caroldmigdenleading.com. I tried to share my opinion as a constituent and it never showed up. I have fielded similar complaints. Susan Federighi of San Rafael,

“The printed polling comments/responses on the site are overwhelmingly stacked in favor of Hillary. The results are highly questionable considering that Barack was the clear winner of the primary votes in Carole’s district. Since there is obviously a choice by those who manage the site as to what comments are printed on the site, perhaps the site does not actually reflect the general consensus of the appeals of the district voters regarding who Carole will ultimately endorse. This makes me wonder if the purpose of the site was to simply justify (showing through selective responses that the majority were actually Hillary supporters) endorsing Hillary regardless of the district clearly wanting her to endorse Obama. Many of us from several groups commented on the site and none to date have reported being published there. Reading through the printed responses that are so slanted is like reading from the Hillary for President playbook. It’s more like free advertising for Hillary rather than “a polling place”…More of the Obama supporters opinions need to be reflected on the site! Oh yes, and there is no limit as to how many times one voter can vote on the site, or any verification to track voters to assure that the same person could not write comments under many names (you know, like “sorry you have already participated in this survey“).”

Another Marin resident had something more blunt to say, “If Carole Migden wants to know how her constituents feel, why doesn’t pay heed to the primary results, rather than putting out some specious poll of her own that she and her staff can manipulate? The fact is, she wants to thumb her nose at her constituents. Her forum poll is a charade! If she needs to conduct such a poll in order to do the right thing, she doesn’t deserve to be a superdelegate. She can have her superdelegate vote. Let her enjoy her swan song in elective politics. What part of “representative democracy” does she not understand? She’s going to be turned out of office over her handling of the superdelegate issue, among several other reasons.“

At Carole Migden’s houseparty last Sunday, I brought this up with Carole’s aide Eric. He seemed surprised and promised to look into it. I will follow up with him tomorrow if my voice holds up. I does seem quite to over represent Clinton supporters given the huge Obama support in her district.

Federighi continues, “Carole is on the ballot for the district’s June 3rd election. I, of course would like her to let us know where she stands prior to the election. I know Diane Feinstein has endorsed Hillary and is a supporter of Carole’s re-election. At this point in the primary, with a clear winner, it seems odd that more super delegates have not endorsed Barack to unify the party. I, along with many others in our district want to vote for someone who has the unification of the party and supporting the candidate who has won the most delegates in mind regardless of their own personal political debts to high profile supporters. Will Carole endorse prior to the district primary election or will she wait until after the election to tell us where she stands? EVERY SUPER DELEGATE REALLY COUNTS, SO WE WANT OUR SUPER DELEGATE TO ACTUALLY HEAR WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY. HOPEFULLY, BECAUSE CAROLE IS ASKING FOR OUR INPUT SHOWS THAT SHE HAS THE INTENTION TO FOLLOW THE WILL OF HER DISTRICTS PEOPLE.”

Another Marinite points out, “In the 6th Congressional District 69,488 of us voted for Barack Obama or 50.9% of the voters. Clinton received 56,901 votes or 41% of the vote. No one actually polls a question that’s already been decided. The results speak for themselves. As a part of grassroots here it seems to me that if the primary election were held today Obama would win be a far greater margin and that’s demonstrated in a very small way by the results of Sen. Midgen’s poll this morning when Barack Obama was leading 56 to 30. As every casual observer knows full well, it is nearly impossible for Sen. Clinton to actually win the Democratic nomination at this point. Sen. Midgen’s campaign slogan is “leading.” It’s no longer possible for her to provide leadership on the presidential campaign locally, but she could still make a small difference with her vote since Sen. Obama needs so few delegates now to put him over the top… Delays in decision-making only help the McCain campaign, so any delay from Sen. Midgen should be accompanied by some sort of explanation that makes sense to the Democratic party activists…If she is not going to lead, at least do no harm and follow the grassroots in supporting Sen. Obama.”

I welcome everyone in the district to write to Woolsey and Migden directly if they haven’t already, and write a letter to the editor here, Marin IJ, Pacific Sun, San Fracisco Chronicle, Novato Advance, and all other papers in the region. If you have yet to vote you may want to make a call that this issue is part of your decision of who to vote for in the June 3rd election.

It is time for Migden and Woolsey to hear the call from their constituents. They made themselves clear way back in February who they wanted for their next president. I have let their offices know that their constituents are unhappy and are feeling unheard.

Even though I have in the past respected that Boxer and Feinstein, being statewide office holders who could represent the statewide results of the primary, I think it is now time for them to step forward and tell Clinton that it is time to end this June 3rd, so we can heal the damage her campaign created.