State Party Leaders Ready For Roll Call Close-Up

Many Delegations Prepare Carefully For Quadrennial Time In The Spotlight

by Marilyn Werber Serafini

Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008


Keith Roark is the state party chairman from Idaho. But he most definitely will not be talking about his state's famous potatoes during the roll-call vote tonight.

He might say nice things about Hillary Rodham Clinton, however, even though 80 percent of his delegation supports Barack Obama. He said he'll ask the opinion of the state's three Clinton delegates before deciding what to say.

"This year, that particular point is more important that it might be in some years," he said, acknowledging that it is "hard to sit through a convention as a delegate supporting the other candidate.... I may say something [about Clinton] if it's important to the Clinton delegates. But I doubt we'll discuss potatoes at any length."

To be sure, Idaho isn't the only state trying to decide whether mentioning Clinton would be helpful, hurtful, or perhaps just comforting to devoted Clinton delegates. And most delegations take the job of crafting their roll-call message seriously. Some, like the group from Washington, D.C., hold meetings to hammer it out, others let their chairmen, or chairwomen, decide -- and sometimes they do so at the last minute.

Terry Shumaker, a Clinton New Hampshire delegate, said that this wouldn't be the first time that a roll-call speech mentions a candidate who is no longer in the running. In 1992, Shumaker helped to write the message for the delegation, which favored Bill Clinton but also had some Paul Tsongas supporters. "It's highly appropriate," he said, to acknowledge the full spectrum of support in the delegation.

Since he doesn't chair the delegation, Shumaker won't have the final say this year, but he vividly remembers the 1992 roll call, where "we talked about the Tsongas economic plan, and Governor Clinton being a man as solid as New Hampshire granite and as warm as New Hampshire is cold."

For D.C.'s delegates, meanwhile, there is only one possible message to send, and it's the same one the District hits at every convention. "One of the biggest issues for us is voting rights," said Vincent Gray, vice chairman of the delegation and chairman of the D.C. City Council. Although the District of Columbia has Electoral College votes, it has no voting representation in Congress. "We pay more taxes than nine other states. We send our sons and daughters off to war. What better opportunity to send the message than here?"

Carol Fowler, head of the South Carolina delegation, said on Tuesday afternoon that she had not yet decided what to say when the Palmetto State gets its turn to speak up, but that she expects to give another delegate time at the podium.

She plans to poll her delegates shortly before the roll call to get a tally of who will vote for Clinton and who will vote for Obama. Many Clinton-pledged delegates plan to cast their votes for Obama to boost party unity. But if even one delegate wants to stick with Clinton, the delegation cannot cast all of its votes for Obama, Fowler said. "You can't order people to vote other than how they want to."

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, another South Carolina delegate, said that the important thing isn't how people vote, but how they conduct themselves on the floor. "I don't see anything wrong with this roll call," he said. "Let them cast their votes. If you've got a good orderly roll call, no problem."

Brian Friel contributed to this story.

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