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Democratic delegates named ... finally

Posted March 07, 2008 10:00 pm

By Bernard Schoenburg

More than a month after Illinois' Feb. 5 primary, candidates to be delegates to this summer's Democratic National Convention can finally know if they won or not.

The State Board of Elections Friday approved final primary results - results that included using Democratic Party rules to name the delegates.

Under the party rules, some winners got fewer votes than some who didn't make the cut. That's because the Democrats want a virtually equal number of men and women to be delegates, and because strength of support for presidential candidates must be reflected in the number of delegates each of those candidates gets from each district.

That policy of "proportional representation" means, for example, that in the 18th Congressional District, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois got three elected delegates, and his rival for the presidential nomination, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, got one.

Out of 14 total Democratic candidates for delegate in the district, the top three votegetters, two women and a man, were for Obama and will go to the convention. The candidate who ran fourth, however - Steve Preckwinkle of Springfield -- also was for Obama and he will not be a delegate.

The fifth-place winner, a woman for Clinton, also will not go. But the sixth-place winner was a man who supports Clinton, and he was tagged as the final delegate.

"I'm very excited," said Maggie Koehler, of Peoria, upon being told by a reporter that she will be going to the convention as a delegate pledged to Obama.

Koehler, daughter of state Sen. Dave Koehler, D-Peoria, said she's been asked daily "if I'm going or if I won," but all she could say until Friday was "I think so."

"The rules of picking the delegates are so confusing," she said.

But she's looking forward to voting for Obama at the convention, which is Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

Preckwinkle, director of political activities for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said he's disappointed he didn't win the election.

"But the rules were written to ensure fairness and balance," Preckwinkle said, "and I wish all the winners well and hope they have a great convention."

The top-placing Clinton delegate candidate in the 18th was Shirley McCombs of Petersburg, who is also secretary of the state Democratic Party. But under the rules, she didn't win a delegate spot.

Virgil Mayberry, a retired John Deere worker and Rock Island County Board member, had fewer votes in the 17th Congressional District than a couple of Obama delegate candidates, but was one of two Clinton supporters to win.

Mayberry said Clinton got about a third of the votes in the congressional district, so under the rules she deserves the two delegates she won there to three for Obama.

Statewide, Obama won 69 of the delegates elected in congressional districts to 31 for Clinton. Results approved by the board Friday morning showed two more delegates for Clinton and two less for Obama, but Mark Mossman, the board's director of election information, said later Friday that it was determined that because Clinton did not receive a threshold of 15 percent of the vote in Congressional Districts 1 and 2, she didn't get one delegate each in those districts as previously calculated. Obama thus should get all eight delegates in each of those overwhelmingly Democratic Chicago-area districts. Mossman said the elections board is expected to meet next week to approve that amendment to the official canvass - the document showing all the results.

Republican delegate candidates statewide already knew their status before Friday because they were elected simply by the number of votes cast.

Republicans elected 54 congressional district-level delegates for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney got three delegates.

In districts that include Springfield, all the Republican winners back McCain. The delegates and alternates are:

--17th Congressional District:

Democrats:

Obama delegates: former state senator Denny Jacobs of East Moline; Bonnie Harris of Galesburg, and Dennis Ahern of Moline. Clinton delegates: Virgil Mayberry of Rock Island and Christine Eik Winick of Galesburg. The alternate delegate is state Sen. Deanna Demuzio of Carlinville, an Obama supporter.

Republicans:

Delegates: Mary Welling of Rock Island, Thomas Gooding and Roy Hertel of Hillsboro. Alternates: Bruce Tossell of Kewanee, Joyce Gooding of Hillsboro, and Helen Albert of Blue Mound.

--18th Congressional District:

Democrats:

Obama delegates: Maggie Koehler of Peoria, state Sen. John Sullivan of Rushville and Jackie Petty of Peoria. Clinton delegate: Robert D. Markham Jr. of Peoria. Alternate: Obama supporter General Parker of Peoria.

Republicans:

Delegates: U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood of Peoria, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis, and state Reps. Raymond Poe of Springfield and Jil Tracy of Mount Sterling. Alternates: Dave Kelm, James Riemer Jr., former Springfield alderman Joe Bartolomucci of Springfield and Becky Weber of Metamora.

--19th Congressional District:

Democrats:

Obama delegates: Patti Hahn of Centralia, state Rep. Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg and Scherrie Giamanco of Mount Vernon. Clinton delegates: Gary Duncan of Woodlawn and Sue Ann Buchanan of Bethalto. Alternate: Obama supporter Ann Blackford of Olney.

Republicans:

Delegates: U.S. Rep. John Shimkus of Collinsville, Kent Gray of Springfield, Kirby Ballard of Carrollton and Wayne Rosenthal of Morrisonville. Alternates: Michael Sneed of Springfield, Steve Tomaszewski of Maryville, Matthew Mau of Chatham and Damon Hofstrand of Rochester.

<span style="font-size: 10pt; color: fuchsia; font-family: Times; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"> Bernard Schoenburg can be reached at 788-1540.

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