El Paso lawyer Don Williams has filed a challenge to the El Paso County Democratic convention, citing rules he said were broken in order to send a disproportionate number of Hillary Clinton delegates to the state convention.

The challenge requests that the state party either change the mix of delegates from the current 9-1 for Clinton to a 3-1 advantage, which would more accurately reflect the makeup of delegates at the county convention, or unseat the El Paso delegation.

The issue has been simmering since the March 29 convention, with passions high on both sides of the debate. Numerous letter-writers to Newspaper Tree and callers to KHRO 1650 AM have made the argument that supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama were disenfranchised by the actions at the convention, while others have dismissed the complaints as sour grapes and the complainants as “whiners.”

Williams, an Obama supporter and member of the Nominations Committee at the March 29 convention, said Saturday on 1650 AM that he is presenting the challenge because of his belief that a basic tenet of democracy and the Democratic Party is that the majority is bound by rules to respect the minority.

In the case of El Paso, and of the convention, there is no question Clinton was the overwhelming victor, he said. But not by a 9-1 margin, which was achieved by a disregard for the rules, said Williams: “Just because you’re the majority it doesn’t give you the right to be oppressive. This procedure became oppressive.”

A summary of the process and the issue (click here for april 1, 2008 npt background, and view the complaint via link at the bottom of this story):

-- The convention attendees chose delegates from among the representatives of the 170-odd precincts in El Paso. Some precincts were combined so the total of delegates from that process was 127.

-- The vote was based on the majority of the precinct representatives. The overwhelming majority of precincts had majority support for Clinton, and the split ended up 120 delegates for Clinton and seven for Obama.

-- In addition to the delegates picked through that process, on the floor, 48 at-large delegates were chosen by the Nominations Committee.

-- According to the state party rules, “Poll results shall be used by the Nominations Committee and by the Convention as a whole as the basis for nominating and for electing At-Large Delegates so as to ensure the fairest possible representation of the Convention participants as a whole within the total delegation, without disturbing the Precinct Caucus election results.” [(Article 4, Part 10. Election Procedure in Presidential and in Non-Presidential Years, (d)(4)]

-- The number of people signing in as delegates at the convention was about 3-1, a figure not in dispute, but the final count of delegates was 157 for Clinton and 18 for Obama, a ratio of about 9-1.

-- Williams’ challenge asserts that the state rule regarding the at-large delegates is meant to ensure that the overall mix of delegates sent to the state reflects the mix of delegates signed in to the county convention.

Danny Anchondo, Democratic Party chairman, and Ken Sutherland, chairman of the Nominations Committee, appeared with Williams on the Hector Montes show on 1650 AM Saturday morning.

Sutherland continued to defend his assertion that the word “fair” in the rule means that the Nominations Committee had the discretion to decide that even though the delegates signed in at about a 3-1 mix, the actual number of Clinton supporters was far more, and therefore giving the majority of at-large delegates to Clinton and leaving the El Paso delegation at a 9-1 ratio is what was the most fair.

But Williams said the word “shall” in the rule is far more meaningful, and means that the overall number of delegates sent from the county convention to the state must reflect the overall number of delegates signed in at the convention, the 3-1 ratio. To achieve that, the majority of at-large delegates should have been given to Obama, he said.

Anchondo said that he hoped “cooler heads” would prevail before the issue gets to the state convention.

“At the convention, I’ve been to so many, everybody gets excited. So sometimes we can’t always get everything done the way it’s supposed to,” he said. “I don’t think all this trying to destroy the Democratic Party helps at all. There’s a simple process … if it’s not corrected here it’s corrected at the state level. That will be taken care of.”

Williams said he wanted to be clear that he would vote for the Democratic candidate in the general presidential election. He also said that he and Anchondo had worked together for many years, he considers Anchondo a friend, and “I hope we will be friends at the end of this.

“I’m hoping clear heads can get together,” Williams said. “I am one of those naïve ‘whiners’ who believe right will prevail. … Like Danny said, we want to work something out in El Paso. We want a united delegation at the state.”

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