Obama camp touts ‘significant concessions’

Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign said it made "significant concessions" during the debate over seating delegates from Florida and Michigan and stressed the need for party unity in an internal email.

The email, obtained by The Hill, noted that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Obama’s rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, gained 20 delegates from two states that violated party rules by moving their primaries earlier on the calendar.

{mosads}“In the contests of this hard-fought race for delegates – and the rules agreed to by all candidates concerning these two states – that’s not an easy decision to make, but it’s the right one,” the email states.

Clinton’s campaign has said the candidate reserves the right to challenge the decision on how to seat delegates from Michigan at a later point. Under the agreement, Clinton would receive fewer delegates than she feels she is entitled to based on the results of the Michigan primary. But even Michigan officials, including Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), called the primary flawed because Obama and three other candidates removed their names from the ballot and the Democratic National Committee had said the state’s delegation would not be seated.

The issue of what to do about Florida and Michigan has been the subject of debate for months, as Democrats tried to figure a way to both adhere to their own party rules without angering voters in two large states the party hopes to win in November.

On Saturday, the Democratic National Committee rules and bylaws committee, in an unprecedented televised event, voted to seat all the delegates from the two states. But each delegate would only count as half a vote. The delegations were originally barred from participating in the convention because they violated party rules by holding primaries earlier than scheduled.

Under the agreement, Clinton would gain 87 delegates and Obama would net 63. The winner needs 2,118 delegates. After Saturday’s decision, Obama had 2,052 and Clinton had 1,877, according to the Associated Press.

The delegates from Florida were divided proportionally, based on the percentages the candidates received in the primary. Michigan proved trickier, mostly because Obama and most other candidates withdrew their names from the ballot. Clinton eventually received around 60 percent of the vote, and "uncommitted" chalked up most of the remainder. The uncommitted votes will now go to Obama.

Harold Ickes, a member of the rules and bylaws committee and a senior Clinton advisor, said the committee’s action would "hijack" the results in Michigan, and would discourage the party unity the committee had sought to reach.

The Obama campaign had a different take: "Today’s decision was a major step forward in unifying the party as we head toward into this critical general election. The deliberations were thorough, and the resolution was fair, with Democrats standing shoulder to shoulder to ensure that Michigan and Florida have the voice they deserve at our convention."