News

August 26, 2008

Carney shut out as Clinton voter

Superdelegate unable to attend convention; thought he’d be allowed to make symbolic vote via proxy.

By Andrew M. Seder aseder@timesleader.com
Times Leader Staff Writer
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U.S. Rep. Chris Carney knew he wasn’t going to be able to make it to Denver for this week’s Democratic National Convention. What he apparently didn’t know is that convention bylaws prohibit delegates, or superdelegates like Carney, from voting by proxy.

“His vote just won’t count,” Carney spokeswoman Rebecca Gale said on Monday.

Last week, Carney told The Times Leader that he would vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York through a proxy. His comments came Aug. 19, the day before he reported for a two-week training session at Langley Air Force Base as part of his annual commitment to the U.S. Navy Reserves.

Carney said he would have liked to attend his first national convention, but his duty to the Navy Reserves comes first.

“It would have been interesting to see how things unfold .... I’m trading one interesting thing for another,” Carney, of Dimock Township, said last week.

Gale said the lost vote won’t make much of a difference as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois appears to have secured enough delegates to earn the party nomination.

According to The Associated Press, Clinton will meet with her pledged delegates Wednesday to publicly release them from their commitment to her and to urge them to support Obama. It’s expected that a symbolic round of voting will take place Wednesday, at which time supporters of Clinton will vote for their candidate and Obama supporters will vote for him. Obama, AP reports, has enough votes to lock up the nomination even if Clinton’s backers don’t change their vote.

Gale said Carney was unaware of the convention rules when he made his comments last week.

“We looked into it and there’s no mechanism for proxy voting,” she said.

Carney, a commander in the U.S. Navy Reserves, is one of two members of Congress who wear the uniform and participate in active duty each year. While at Langley near Hampton, Va., Carney will be involved with the Predator and Reaper missions.

Andrew M. Seder, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 570-829-7269.

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