Clinton camp clings to re-vote hope

Despite the widely held belief that efforts in Florida and Michigan to repeat the states’ Democratic primaries are dead, top aides for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) are hammering Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to “stop standing in the way” of a re-vote.

{mosads}Top adviser Harold Ickes said that “slapping [Michigan and Florida voters] in the face” will come back to hurt Democrats in November. “The general election is going to be very, very close,” Ickes said, indicating Michigan “needs to be very squarely” in the Democrats’ column to win the presidency.

The Clinton campaign stands to gain greatly from re-votes and clings to the hope that it can still take first place. The former first lady won the two earlier contests but was not awarded delegates because Florida and Michigan had violated Democratic National Committee rules in moving up their primary contests. Re-votes would likely help Clinton’s delegate tally and boost her claim to do well in big states, which will play a key role in the general election. In addition, repeating the primaries would likely close the gap between Clinton and Obama in total votes.

Her campaign’s deputy communications director, Phil Singer, said Obama is pursuing “a strategy of silencing the voices” of voters in both states.