Clinton expands Iowa delegate support at state convention

A sea of hands went up Saturday when Iowa Democratic Party delegates were asked how many were participating in their first state convention.

The question on many of their minds, however, was how many of these new participants would still be raising their hands for the party nominee after the dust settles at the national convention in July.

There was some indication that Hillary Clinton’s status as the presumptive nominee was having an effect. While there was some behind-the-scenes grumbling, the open conflict of some county and district conventions over delegate counts was mostly absent from the state convention.

Out of 1,285 delegates to the convention, Clinton was originally allotted 704. But after all the delegates were seated and given the opportunity to realign, Clinton had 714 and Bernie Sanders had 571.  Clinton will have 23 national delegates from Iowa and Sanders has 21, not including superdelegates.

“Hillary Clinton will win the state of Iowa,” said Sean Bagniewski of Des Moines, co-chair of the Clinton preference group at the convention.

Mitch Henry, a Latino political activist and Sanders campaign supporter from Des Moines, was one of the Sanders delegates who switched his support to Clinton.

“Now’s the time,” he said, indicating that the nomination battle is essentially over.

He said he hopes fellow Sanders supporters will also get behind Clinton and unify the party to defeat Donald Trump. “That’s our No. 1 target: Donald Trump.”

Some other Sanders delegates, however, were uncertain they could throw their support to Clinton even after the national convention.

Timothy Vaughan of Altoona, a first-time state convention delegate and supporter of Bernie Sanders, didn’t foresee supporting Hillary Clinton as party nominee. He cited “voter suppression” and irregularities in states like New York, Arizona and Kentucky.

“I think a lot of independent voters that I know, they can’t get behind a presumptive nominee that hasn’t been straight with them,” Vaughan said.

Sanders supporter Madelyn Brunow of Woodbine, also a first-time delegate and a new Democrat, said the decision of whether to support Clinton as nominee was a tough call.

“I’m just not really sold by her saleswoman tactics,” Brunow said.

Longtime Democratic Party member Jan Ellsworth of Des Moines, a Clinton supporter, said she welcomed “fresh faces” into the party. But she didn’t have much patience for complaints from new Democrats that the system is unfair to Sanders.

“You don’t go into somebody else’s house and start rearranging the furniture to your liking,” she said.

Elected officials and candidates at the convention called and in some cases pleaded for unity after the party nomination is decided.

“If you can’t get together today, I get that,” said U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack.

He recalled going through the nomination process in 2000 as a supporter of presidential candidate Bill Bradley, who lost to Al Gore.

But, he added, “I’m asking, I’m pleading for folks to come together when this is all over.”

Attorney General Tom Miller, who has endorsed Clinton, had praise for Sanders’ accomplishments.

“He’s moved the party to the left and that’s a good thing,” he said.

New voter Sruthi Palaniappan, 18, of Cedar Rapids, a Clinton supporter, was elected from her district convention to serve as a national delegate. Her message to Sanders supporters:

“I think what they need to understand is we need a united front if we want to take down the Republican Party and still keep our Democratic Party alive,” she said. “We need to unite all Democrats because we’re all built on the same ideals and we have the same beliefs and values and passions.”

Of the nine at-large national delegates elected at the state convention, Clinton will have five and Sanders will have four. Clinton also had 15 national delegates and two alternates elected at district conventions; Sanders had 14 national delegates and two alternates. Delegates were also choosing a total of six party leader elected officials, three for each candidate. So that's 23 delegates for Clinton and 21 for Sanders. Iowa also has seven superdelegates, six of whom have been announced as Clinton supporters and one, state party chair Andy McGuire, who is neutral.

Delegates

Delegates elected at the Democratic state convention on Saturday were:

• Party leader elected officials for Clinton: Tom Harkin, Rob Hogg and Som Baccam.  
• At-large national delegates for Clinton: Michael Fitzgerald, Josh Hughes, Christina Blackcloud, Alexandria Hoskins and Cindy Pollard.
• Party leader elected officials for Sanders: Mary Hoyer, Brian Gerjets and Brent Oleson.
• At-large delegates for Sanders: Eleanore Taft, Jenny Gernhart, Chris Petersen and Victor Zavala.  
• Democratic National Committee members: Scott Brennan and Sandy Opstvedt both re-elected. Both are Clinton supporters.

The list of delegates chosen at the district conventions is at http://iowademocrats.org/2016-district-convention-national-delegates-election-results/