Clinton pushes Obama on Michigan, Fla. delegates

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Thursday sent a letter to Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), asking him to work with her on a solution to allow delegates from Florida and Michigan to help choose the party’s presidential nominee.

“Your commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated,” the former first lady said.

{mosads}Clinton said in her letter that the two candidates had fought a “historic and exciting campaign” and argued that one of the “foremost principles of our party is that citizens be allowed to vote and that those votes be counted.”

However, the former first lady stated, “that principle is not currently being applied to the nearly 2.5 million people who voted in primaries in Florida and Michigan.” She claimed that the eventual Democratic nominee “will be hamstrung in the general election if a fair and quick resolution is not reached that ensures that the voices of these voters are heard.”

The two states had been stripped of their delegates after they, in violation of Democratic National Committee rules, moved up too far on the primary calendar. Clinton won both contests, though neither candidate campaigned in the states and Obama was not even on the ballot in Michigan.

One of the New York senator’s last hopes of winning the nomination is to get the delegates of the states seated and give them a voice in the outcome of the primary.

In her letter, Clinton argued that she had tried harder than Obama to give the voters in Michigan and Florida a voice in the process.

“I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan,” she concluded. “It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee.”

The Obama campaign was asked about the two penalized states again Thursday morning on a conference call with reporters. Campaign supporters said the issue has to be resolved by the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee, which is scheduled to meet May 31.