Obama Wins 9 More Delegates in Iowa, Calif.

[Jeremy Dokken]

Obama Wins More Delegates in Iowa, Calif.
Updated 11:33 p.m.
By Peter Slevin
CHICAGO - Sen. Barack Obama picked up nine more pledged delegates in Iowa, state Democratic officials said late Saturday night, as thousands took part in county conventions.

All but one of the delegates had been among the 14 won Jan. 3 by former senator John Edwards, who has since dropped out of the Democratic presidential race. Election-night projections showed Obama getting 16 delegates and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 15.

With the other six standing firm for Edwards at the county conventions, Obama's camp claimed 25 delegates from Iowa to 14 for Clinton.

"This is a very significant improvement for us," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters of the Iowa result. "We both fought as hard as we could here."

Plouffe said Obama's gains included blue-collar counties where he had finished third in the January caucuses.

If the Iowa numbers hold at the June 14 state convention, which sends delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August, Obama will have gained more than half of the state's delegates. On Jan. 3, he was backed by 39 percent of caucusgoers, compared with 30 percent for Edwards and 29 percent for Clinton.

The Associated Press reported late Saturday that, in final counts from California's Feb. 5 primary, Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, and Obama added five. According to AP's count, the Iowa and California results give Obama a national lead of 119 delegates, both pledged and superdelegates, over Clinton.

Plouffe said the Obama campaign's numbers show that Clinton must win 65 percent of pledged delegates available in the 10 remaining contests (not counting Michigan or Florida) to overtake the Illinois senator.

"We are running out of real estate here in the contest," Plouffe said.

He noted that the Iowa gain equaled Clinton's nine-delegate win in Ohio -- a detail designed to emphasize a campaign strategy of winning delegates everywhere it can in hopes of outpolling and outmaneuvering the Clinton troops.

Clinton suggested in New Hampshire, where she won five days after the Iowa caucuses, that the Midwestern state counted less because it chose delegates through caucuses. But the Clinton campaign, aware of the stakes as the primary season rumbles toward an end, deployed experienced field staffers to Iowa well in advance of the Saturday gatherings.

[Jeremy Dokken]

Obama Picks Up Iowa Delegates, Expands Lead
by SusanG
Sat Mar 15, 2008 at 05:40:39 PM PDT
Via Associated Press:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up at least seven delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

Half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday and Obama got most, if not all, of them.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with more than 86 percent of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared to 32 percent for Clinton. About 16 percent of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.
This brings Associated Press’s delegate count to 1,610 for Obama, 1,496 to Clinton.

Update by kos: Obama's gains were even more dramatic -- he went from a +1 advantage in the state to a +10 advantage, gaining nine while Clinton lost one.

The count went from 16-O, 15-C, 14-E to 25-O, 14-C, and 6-E.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/15/20399/9133

[Deanna Witmer]

"Fragile?"  He leads by 117 total delegates after her big win" in Ohio.

Like some of the comments I just read:

Obama leads in votes, states, pledged delegates and small donors... Hillary leads in party insiders and people not paying attention.

Thank goodness for those steely superdelegates.  They'll tell us what we REALLY want.

[Deanna Witmer]

Not only did Obama win more Iowa delegates...

Paddy posted about the additional Iowa delegates. There's a little more news from the Washington Post:

The Associated Press reported late Saturday that, in final counts from California's Feb. 5 primary, Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, and Obama added five. According to AP's count, the Iowa and California results give Obama a national lead of 119 delegates over Clinton.

Plouffe said the Obama campaign's numbers show that Clinton must win 65 percent of delegates available in the 10 remaining contests (not counting Michigan or Florida) to overtake the Illinois senator.

"We are running out of real estate here in the contest," Plouffe said.

[Deanna Witmer]

Hip hip Hussein hooray! 

[Deanna Witmer]

Obama expands delegate lead over Clinton By MIKE GLOVER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 14 minutes ago
 


DES MOINES, Iowa - Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile(?) lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up nine delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

 
More than half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards on the basis of caucus night projections switched Saturday to Obama.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with all of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared with 32 percent for Clinton. Some of the delegates picked at Saturday's conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he's dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.

Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by nine the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 25 compared with 14 for Clinton and six for Edwards.

Twelve automatic delegates bring the state's total to 57. Obama has been endorsed by four of those and Clinton three, with the remainder uncommitted.

Also Saturday, California's Democratic Party finalized the delegate counts from its Feb. 5 primary. Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, raising her state total to 204; Obama gained five, raising his figure to 166.

Counting Saturday's new figures from Iowa and California, an Associated Press delegate tally showed Obama with 1,617 delegates and Clinton with 1,498.

Obama won Iowa's precinct caucuses in January with 39 percent of the vote, with Edwards narrowly edging Clinton to finish second. Projections on caucus night showed Obama getting 16 delegates, compared with 15 for Clinton and 14 for Edwards.

"It means the Obama people are very organized," said Iowa Democratic Chairman Scott Brennan. "They have been working very hard for these conventions."

Brennan said turnout was heavy, with more than 13,000 activists showing up at conventions in the state's 99 counties.

"Today, Iowa Democrats again turned out in large numbers to reject the failed Bush-McCain campaign and its policies," said Brennan.

Edwards finished second in the state's leadoff precinct caucuses on Jan. 3, but those caucuses are only the first step in a complicated process of picking the state's 45 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August.

The next step in that process was Saturday with selection of delegates to congressional district and state conventions. Party officials said the results Saturday marked the election of 2,173 of the 2,500 delegates who will go to those convention.

The epic presidential race between Clinton and Obama has been reshaped since Iowa's caucuses, but is no less intense with every delegate carrying weight.

"Every single one counts and that's why we've been here organizing," said Teresa Vilmain, a field organizer for Clinton.

"We've filled all of our slots," said Gordon Fischer, a former Iowa Democratic chairman who is organizing for Obama.

Rob Tully, a Des Moines lawyer and prominent Edwards backer, sent an e-mail to supporters urging them to remain neutral, but there was clear movement to Obama when the results were tallied.

"Barack Obama stands for a lot of the same things that John Edwards stood for," said Ro Foege, a state legislator from Mount Vernon who switched to the Obama camp.

The county conventions are traditionally sleepy gatherings where party leaders have trouble gathering a quorum to conduct business, largely because the party usually has a nominee by this point. With the race still up for grabs, activists jammed school gymnasiums, auditoriums and meeting halls across the state.

Former Gov. Tom Vilsack, a Clinton backer, spoke to more than 1,200 delegates jammed into a suburban high school gym.

"The reality is we are united on one thing today, we are Democrats, we are proud Democrats and we are going to elect a Democratic president," said Vilsack, who dropped his own bid for the nomination even before the voting began. "Let us pledge that we will unite behind our nominee — be it he or she."

[Deanna Witmer]

Glad they are finally preaching "unity" after Barack approached Hillary in the Senate the other day.  Hope it lasts!