News politics 2008-05-08 Andanh.com

APNewsBreak: NC superdelegate Rep. Brad Miller now for Obama Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41 EDT
Rep. Brad Miller is endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The three-term lawmaker from Raleigh is the third North Carolina superdelegate to pledge support to Obama since the Illinois senator's convincing victory in the state's primary.

Miller says he decided to endorse Obama following an afternoon meeting with the candidate.

Obama now has the support of nine superdelegates from North Carolina. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton has the support of three state superdelegates, including Gov. Mike Easley.

There are five uncommitted superdelegates remaining. Obama won North Carolina's primary by 14 points on Tuesday.

Obama's small donors, in their words Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41 EDT
WHY THEY GIVE

-"For the last many elections, I've always voted for the person who was the lesser of two evils," said Duran Atkins, 50, owner of an adventure travel company in Bozeman, Mt. "Obama gets it."

-"He's got it," said Steve Bennett, 55, of Tucson, Ariz. "He seems to me to be the best hope - not to use the worn-out phrase - to really bridge the chasm."

-"He has excited me in a way that no other candidate has," says Aaron Alpern, 46, a Chicago actor. "He talks to us like adults."

-"I would feel comfortable with him as president," says Haydon Grubbs, 77, a retired engineer from Shalimar, Fla. "It's actually a sigh of relief."

Snapshots of four donors to the Obama campaign Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41 EDT
Aaron Alpern, 46, and his wife live in Chicago and have a combined income of $30,000. They have a 4-year-old son. Alpern's an actor, and not always employed. He says it's hard to pay the bills each month, but they've managed to contribute to Obama four or five times online, about $50 at a time. "I plan on giving every time I have a chance," he says. "He has excited me in a way that no other candidate has." Alpern says he's been particularly motivated by one of Obama's frequent campaign pitches: "The change you're waiting for is you." He has also helped the campaign by making phone calls to Texas voters, and adds, "I also know I'll work for him again before this election is over."

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Larry Levine, 59, lives in tiny Hinton, W.Va., where he co-owns a theater and serves as the chair of two community organizations. He's not sure exactly how much he's given to Obama, but says he gives $50 or $100 online every few weeks and plans to keep doing that until he hits the legal limit of $2,300 for the primary election. Hinton likes Obama's "sense of the world" and his life history, which spans two continents. "Something else I appreciate about his candidacy is the level of integrity and respect throughout the debates, in trying to keep the discussion on issues rather than personality," Levine says. Levine says hardly anyone would see an Obama sign on his gravel road, but he keeps an Obama sticker on the window of his car.

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Timothy Sweeney, 24, is a medical student at Duke University and lives in Durham, N.C. He did his undergraduate work in Chicago, where Obama made an impression on him with his "high-minded approach to things." Sweeney has given about $300 online overall, starting with a contribution to Obama's exploratory campaign in January 2007. Obama was "just an honest decent man and I felt like somebody like that should be in the race," Sweeney says. He says he's willing to contribute another $100 to $150 to Obama, but probably only if the candidate makes it to the general election and adopts a more centrist policy in that race. "I don't think at this point donations would make a difference in terms of Hillary vs. Obama." He says he doesn't have time to volunteer for the campaign but did take seven hours to catch Obama speaking during the North Carolina campaign. "The energy inside the arena was really quite pumping," he said.

Fla. Dems ask national party to seat presidential delegation Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41 EDT
Florida's Democratic congressional delegation called on the national party Thursday to seat the state's delegation based on its January primary, and the state party is growing more hopeful that the campaigns will agree on a plan by the end of the month.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida's delegates because the state held its Jan. 29 primary earlier than party rules allowed. Hillary Rodham Clinton won 50 percent to Barack Obama's 33 percent.

"These are clear indications that - just like in other places throughout the country - Florida voters are tired of Republicans and are demanding a new direction in our country," Florida's nine Democratic members of Congress said in a letter to national party chief Howard Dean. "All of this will be lost, however, if we do not find a solution to this ongoing controversy that fully seats all of Florida's 211 delegates."

State party spokesman Mark Bubriski told The Associated Press that Florida officials have been talking with campaign representatives for Obama and Clinton about recognizing all, or part, of the state's delegates.

"I think they are more and more willing to really consider seating Florida's delegates, if at half or full strength," Bubriski said.

AP IMPACT: The people in Obama's army of small donors Thu, 08 May 2008 18:36 EDT
Kriss Riggs isn't one to spend her money on politicians.

"Even the place you can donate a dollar on your taxes, I refuse to do it," says the 60-year-old photographer from Blue River, Ore.

Likewise for Kate Schwartz, a 24-year-old marketing expert from Chicago. Past elections, she says, always seemed far removed from young people.

"A lot of people felt like it wasn't happening in my demographic," Schwartz said.

Not this time.

Obama gets big welcome, fresh support on Capitol tour Thu, 08 May 2008 20:15 EDT
Sen. Barack Obama got a front-runner's welcome back at the Capitol Thursday, pressing congressional "superdelegates" to support him in a visit that had the look and feel of a campaign victory lap.

On the House floor, he was quickly surrounded by well-wishers calling him, "Mr. President" and reaching out to pat him on the back or shake his hand. The glad-handers included a few Republicans and supporters of his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

He picked up the superdelegate support of at least two lawmakers: Rep. Brad Miller of North Carolina, where Obama handily won the primary on Tuesday, and Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington state.

Obama predicted he would lose the next two contests to Clinton - West Virginia and Kentucky - but said he expected to win other states. His presence here underscored the nomination math: The remaining six primaries and their 217 delegates are not what matters most in the winding-down campaign.

More important are the 260-plus superdelegates who are yet to be claimed and are not bound by the outcome of any state's vote. Although Obama cannot be caught in the race for primary delegates, neither can he win the nomination without the backing of more superdelegates.

Obama accuses McCain of 'losing his bearings' with comment Thu, 08 May 2008 19:32 EDT
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday that Republican John McCain tried to smear him and was "losing his bearings" for suggesting that Hamas preferred Obama for president.

"This is offensive, and I think it's disappointing, because John McCain always says, 'Well, I'm not going to run that kind of politics.' And then to engage in that kind of smear, I think, is unfortunate, particularly since my policy toward Hamas has been no different than his," Obama told CNN in an interview Thursday.

The Illinois senator added: "For him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination. We don't need name-calling in this debate."

McCain has raised questions about a Hamas adviser, Ahmed Yousef, saying in an interview: "We like Obama and hope that he will win the election." The United States has labeled the Palestinian organization a terrorist group.

"It's indicative of how some of our enemies view America," McCain said Wednesday on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." "And I guarantee you, they're not going to endorse me."

State's superdelegates urged to pick and repick Thu, 08 May 2008 02:03 EDT
Kentucky's Democratic superdelegates are holding firm in their positions after the North Carolina and Indiana primary results, although one prominent supporter of U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said pressure is being applied to that group to end the campaign soon.

The eight known superdelegates Kentucky will send to August's Democratic National Convention remain split: three for Clinton, two for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and three undeclared.

On Wednesday -- the day after Clinton edged Obama in Indiana but lost by 14 points in North Carolina's primary -- one of Clinton's staunchest Kentucky supporters and superdelegate, Terry McBrayer, said a movement is afoot among the "big boys" in Washington to end the battle before the convention in Denver.

Superdelegates, who are state party leaders and elected officials, are at the center of that effort because they can choose to vote in the convention for the candidate of their choice regardless of primary results. The national Democratic Party has 795 such superdelegates, of which more than 250 remain neutral.

"I've gotten calls from everybody on both sides trying to bring some resolution to it," McBrayer said. "There's some power politics going on. There's a lot of effort going on right now inside the beltway."

Campaigns set to go the distance Thu, 08 May 2008 12:05 EDT
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton disregarded questions about the viability of her bid for the White House and clung to hopes that she could still convince voters and party delegates that she would be the stronger nominee.

Sen. Barack Obama's supporters made no move to call for Clinton to bow out of the race, but pointed to the "simple math" of the Democratic delegates that solidly favors the Illinois senator becoming the party's nominee.

"In my opinion it does not hurt us that she stays in the race," said Louisville's Democratic U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, an Obama supporter. "There will be a full campaign in Kentucky because I believe there's enough energy to warrant it and I believe the people in the state want it."

Both campaigns Wednesday leaped into spin mode to interpret Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries, as the candidates headed into the final six primary contests, including Kentucky.

"The reality is that many pundits have counted Sen. Clinton out many times during this contest," Howard Wolfson, Clinton's communications director, told reporters on a conference call. "Thankfully for us, the punditocracy does not control this nomination process."

Chelsea Clinton to hold forum at EKU Thu, 08 May 2008 02:03 EDT
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton will return to Kentucky on Thursday to campaign for her mother, Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Chelsea Clinton will conduct a forum about the economy at Eastern Kentucky University at 1:15 p.m. The event, called "Our Economy Our Future," will take place at the Powell Student Center and is open to the public.

She will then be on hand at the 3:30 p.m. opening of the Clinton campaign's Frankfort field office at 340-1 Democrat Drive -- just down the street from the Kentucky Democratic Party headquarters.

Thursday will mark Chelsea Clinton's third trip to Kentucky in the last month. She campaigned in Lexington and Louisville in April before attending the Derby last weekend, where she met with state Democratic officials and took hundreds of photos with Derby-goers, said state Party Chairman Jennifer Moore.

Same race, new challenges Wed, 07 May 2008 02:07 EDT
Just 24 votes separated Sen. Johnny Ray Turner from challenger Eric Shane Hamilton in the 2004 Democratic primary for Eastern Kentucky's 29th Senate District.

Now, Hamilton is back for a rematch. And a lot has changed in four years.

Since then, Turner -- the Senate Democratic caucus leader -- was implicated in a vote-buying scandal stemming from his 2000 election. He pleaded guilty in December 2006 to a misdemeanor and served a three-month sentence under home arrest.

Hamilton, meanwhile, traded in his industrial cleaning business to become a landlord. But after buying two apartment complexes in west Lexington, he's found himself dogged by city code enforcement officials.

So the two candidates, still slightly bruised from their last contest and the events in between, meet again in the May 20 primary to be decided by Democratic voters in Floyd, Knott, Breathitt and Letcher counties.

Kentucky likely to get some attention Wed, 07 May 2008 08:10 EDT
As implausible as it once sounded, Kentucky will likely take a turn in coming days as the center of the American political universe.

This strange and ever-murky Democratic primary contest is now winding its way to the closers: the last half-dozen of unlikely electoral battlegrounds, including the Bluegrass State.

So barring a sudden race-ending concession, both Democratic presidential contenders -- U.S. Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York -- are expected to criss-cross the state over the next two weeks leading up to Kentucky's May 20 primary as if they're running for governor instead of president.

"It's an important role for Kentucky, but I would caution us not to get our hopes up that we're going to be the kingmaker or the queenmaker," said Saundra Ardrey, head of the political science department at Western Kentucky University. "The pattern is that the candidates pretty much split the delegates and no decision is made."

Returns from Tuesday's elections in Indiana and North Carolina appeared to match that trend as Clinton led in Indiana and Obama captured North Carolina, although Obama's clear victory in the bigger state yielded more delegates.

Unions focus against McCain as Democrats still battling Thu, 08 May 2008 20:29 EDT
Organized labor is paying more attention to Republican John McCain as Democrat Barack Obama solidifies his status as the front-runner in the Democratic contest against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The AFL-CIO, which has not endorsed anyone in the Democratic primary, announced Wednesday that it is sending more than 6,000 of its people to more than 22 states during the next two weekends to talk to more than 200,000 union voters about McCain.

"Senator McCain's economic path would lead to disaster for America's working families," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization.

Meanwhile, the nation's largest union, the Service Employees International Union, is increasing its focus on the likely Republican presidential nominee. The union's political action committee is already running commercials critical of McCain's health care plan.

The SEIU, which endorsed Obama, has called the Illinois senator "the presumptive nominee."

Political career hasn't come easy Thu, 08 May 2008 02:03 EDT
Bruce Lunsford has lived the quintessential American dream. As a child, he went five years without indoor plumbing and set tobacco in his family's fields.

He worked his way through college and law school and found success in the business world. He's now a multimillionaire, with enough cash flow to dabble in Hollywood flicks, Thoroughbreds and politics.

It's the last that has proven most elusive for Lunsford, who has evolved from an outsider politician to establishment choice.

He has spent almost $14 million of his own money trying to capture Kentucky's governorship but never garnered more than 21 percent of Democratic primary votes.

In 2003, he pitched himself as an outsider, running television ads that portrayed Frankfort legislators as monkeys. He pulled out just before the primary, and then endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher in the general election.

Chinese Dir