Link: ABQjournal NM: N.M. Superdelegate Pick Contested.
Some top-level Hillary Clinton backers in New Mexico are crying foul over last weekend's selection of the state's 12th and final superdelegate to the Democratic national convention. The Clinton supporters, who outnumbered supporters of Barack Obama at the Saturday meeting, apparently are frustrated that party members ended up electing a superdelegate who says she is uncommitted in the presidential contest instead of one committed to Clinton. In a letter this week to state Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colón, 10 ranking party members— including four Clinton superdelegates— accused Colón of breaking the delegate selection rules. Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, another Clinton superdelegate, told the Journal that she thinks Barack Obama backers put "tremendous" pressure on Colón about the selection plan. "I don't think the governor personally would have done it," Denish said of Gov. Bill Richardson, who has endorsed Obama. "But people associated with him would have worked very hard at that on his behalf." Richardson spokesman Pahl Shipley said Wednesday that no governor's associates put the heat on Colón, adding that Richardson played no role in the outcome of Saturday's election. Colón said Wednesday that backers of both Obama and Clinton were pressuring him heavily before his nomination of the 12th superdelegate, Laurie Weahkee, who has said she is still uncommitted to either Clinton or Obama. Colón added that the party broke no rules in the selection process, which led to Weahkee's election. "The Clintons are fighting for every single delegate, and the Obamas are fighting for every single delegate," Colón said. "At the end of the day, what I did was follow the rules." Most political observers believe the protracted nominating battle between Clinton and Obama will be decided by nearly 800 superdelegates from around the nation, who can vote for whomever they wish at the party's August nominating convention in Denver.
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