Clinton gets deep-pockets boost from loyalists

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 5/28/8 | Carla Marinucci

[SmithL]

With just three Democratic primaries left and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's chances at her party's nomination increasingly a longshot, determined and deep-pocketed supporters based in San Francisco have launched an effort to keep the New York senator's campaign alive - making a case for counting primary votes in Michigan and Florida.

Susie Tompkins Buell, a longtime friend of Clinton's and - along with her husband, Mark Buell - one of the country's most generous Democratic donors, is one of the forces behind the WomenCount political action committee.

Since its formation earlier this month, the group has spent at least $140,000 to publish full-page ads in newspapers around the country in support of Clinton, according to the organization's papers on file with the Federal Elections Commission.

The committee's ads, headlined "Not So Fast," urge that the votes of women - who make up 51 percent of the American electorate - be fully counted in the 2008 presidential election.

Meeting on delegates

The Democratic National Committee will meet in Washington this weekend to decide how to seat delegates from the contested states of Florida and Michigan. Both states defied party rules by holding early primaries, ignoring party warnings that they would be penalized by having convention delegates barred from being seated. And supporters of rival candidate Barack Obama point out that Clinton - like Obama - agreed to the rules going into the contests.

The pro-Clinton committee plans more ads this week leading up to the DNC meeting on Saturday, hoping to pump up attendance at a Count Every Vote '08 rally in the nation's capital.

[Always Right]

Operation Chaos is alive! Maybe they can have a re-vote in Michigan and Florida in July?

[popdonnelly]

I’d say it’s a poor investment.