Latino Superdelegate Slams Hillary Clinton

Did Hillary just give more reasons for Hispanic voters to say “Sí, Se Puede!” to team Obama?

It appears that yesterday’s big move by the Clinton campaign - replacing former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle with current campaign manager Maggie Williams has alienated a leader within the DNC’s Hispanic community - Superdelegate Steven Ybarra, a California superdelegate who heads the voting-rights committee of the DNC Hispanic Caucus.

The e-mail noted that Clinton, who is looking to Latino voters for a boost in the Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4, scored heavily with Hispanics in her California win.

“Apparently, loyalty is not a two-way street,” he wrote. “Latino superdelegates like myself . . . will have cause to pause.”

Ybarra told The Post yesterday that the loss of Solis Doyle, a child of Mexican immigrants, just weeks before the Texas primary, where 36 percent of the population is Hispanic, was “dumb as a stump.” Of course, Ybarra probably doesn’t know that Hillary still intends to bring Solis Doyle along as an adviser (i.e. Clinton-friendly Hispanic face/voice).

Read article here: Super Latino Slams Clinton

  • Steven Ybarra is a retired civil rights attorney who operates a consultant company in California. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee and a long time political activist. SOURCE.
  • Then again… according to Hillary, he wouldn’t know what his people want anyway. As she said yesterday in Maryland, “activists don’t represent the electorate. We know that”.
Published in: on February 12, 2008 at 5:36 pm Comments (5)
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Hillary’s New Campaign Manager has Old Controversies

NEW CAMPAIGN MANAGER, OLD CONTROVERSIES

At this critical juncture, why Hillary Clinton would bring on someone with such a controversial past as Maggie Williams baffles me a bit. Williams had served as the First Lady’s Chief-of-Staff during Bill Clinton’s first term in office but left amid a flurry of controversy.

So… why her, now? My theories:

  1. Hillary needed to make a scapegoat out of former campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, and the timing to replace her with someone else was too short. Using Maggie makes it appear as though it was the plan all along.
  2. Maggie Williams is African-American. Just as Solis Doyle appealed to Hispanic voters in Latina and Latina Style magazines highlighting her status as Clinton’s campaign manager, perhaps now Maggie can recoup some of the African-American voters lost in the recent months.
  3. Desperate times call for desperate measures. New plan of action to come from Hillary camp?

In any case, a bit on Ms. Maggie Williams from NPR News Blog:

Williams left the White House in 1998 after questions arose about her relationship with controversial Democratic fund raiser Johnny Chung, who was convicted of bank fraud, tax evasion, and two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to violate election law. Williams had also faced allegations during the first Clinton term that she had removed the files of deputy White House counsel Vince Foster after his suicide.

More detail and background from Huffington Post and the New York Post.

Other incongruencies: Clinton camp has said part of the reason for Solis Doyle “stepping down” is to spend more time with her family. Why then do other aides from Clinton Camp say this:

Importantly, aides stressed that Solis Doyle will begin to travel with Clinton, arguably giving her even greater access to the candidate’s ear. She plans to spend time helping Clinton in Texas, where she has close ties, and will appear as a surrogate on Clinton’s behalf.

Since when does traveling help you spend more time with your family? And yes, we already know Mrs. Solis-Doyle is tagging along to help with the large amount of Hispanic voters in Texas.

Published in: on February 11, 2008 at 6:52 pm Comments (0)
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