News - Local/State

Saturday, May. 03, 2008

At S.C. Democratic convention, Rex denied chance to be delegate

The only Democrat in statewide office wouldn't commit to Obama

COLUMBIA -- S.C. Democrats selected delegates to their 2008 national convention Saturday, declaring they are ready to take over the reins of the federal government again.

But lingering scars from the bruising campaign for the White House between Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois and Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York were on display at the Democrats' state convention.

As a result, State Education Superintendent Jim Rex, the highest-ranking Democrat in South Carolina and the only one elected to statewide office, won't be a convention delegate.

Under intense pressure from the Obama campaign, state convention delegates instead gave their remaining unfilled superdelegate slot to former state education superintendent Inez Tenenbaum, an Obama campaign state chair.

"I am disappointed," Rex said. "I would love to have gone to this convention. It's going to be historic."

But Rex, who said the Obama campaign put him under intense pressure over the 17 hours leading up to the convention, refused to commit his vote to Obama for the Aug. 25 convention in Denver.

Rex said he hasn't backed a candidate in the 2008 election since Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware dropped out of the race Jan. 3 after losing badly in the Iowa caucuses.

Rex said he didn't bow to party pressure to commit to Obama because whichever Democrat wins the nomination is going to need the backing of the other's supporters.

"Don't damage the victor so bad (by alienating the other's supporters now that) they can't win in November," he said.

Though Rex said he would have used the superdelegate slot to be a mender and a healer, "Ironically, I was leaning toward Obama."

Tenenbaum told The Associated Press she entered the race Saturday morning only because Rex had insisted on remaining unpledged. She said Obama's landslide win in South Carolina's Democratic primary means "he deserves to have this at-large seat."

Rex turned back a strong challenge from Republican school-choice candidate Karen Floyd in 2006 to get elected, and was in line to win the superdelegate slot. Rex said he learned of Tenenbaum's candidacy for the slot Saturday, en route to the convention. "This is a party that's talking about change, but we have seen the same old tactics of the past," Rex said.

"Maybe they need to change the rules of how they do things," countered Anton Gunn, who was Obama's state political director and now is a candidate for the state House of Representatives.

Gunn said everyone who attended the convention is "committed" to one candidate or the other, and added it was unrealistic for the state party to have listed the delegate slot Saturday as "an Unpledged Add-on Delegate."

Don Fowler, who served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995-97, said that the add-on delegate slot was reserved for an uncommitted delegate by design and that Tenenbaum got the slot because she was committed to Obama.

"I created the rule for unpledged delegates," Fowler noted, specifically for people who want to participate in the process without lining up for one candidate or another at the county level. "There's nobody who better fits that category for which it was created than Jim Rex," said Fowler, a superdelegate who backs Clinton.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., who has worried the battle between Clinton and Obama could become too bitter and have lasting effects for the general election in November, downplayed the Rex snub. "That's just party politics," he said.

The annual Democratic Convention weekend is one of the party's biggest events, turning out loyalists for the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner and Clyburn's annual fish fry Friday night before the Saturday convention.

Looking toward the possibility of Democrats adding to their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate, Clyburn, who is House majority whip, had warned Democrats to leave their candidate partisanship at home this year for his bash.

"We had one of the most successful (Jefferson-Jacksons) we have ever had," Clyburn said, alluding to the high participation and buzz over this year's elections.

Television star Alfre Woodard, an Obama supporter, along with Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, attended the dinner and fish fry. Woodard told the large crowd at the fish fry, "Anything can be done when the people get together."

Klobuchar, the first female U.S. senator elected in Minnesota's history, was keynote speaker for the dinner. She encouraged Democrats that they could "paint South Carolina blue" in November if they turned out to vote.

"This is an exciting year for Democrats, and South Carolina is at the apex of that excitement," said Klobuchar, an Obama superdelegate, noting Palmetto State Democrats sparked that excitement by their record turnout of more than 530,000 voters in the January primary.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, one of Clinton's most visible state supporters, said he has contacted both Clinton and Obama S.C. supporters about having the two candidates return to South Carolina, once a nominee is named, in a show of party unity.

"Since they say this is where we had the division and because symbols do matter, I'd like to see them come back to South Carolina, to say `We are together,"' Jackson said.