"You are hereby directed to come in to the party Headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in light of these comments," the letter said.And Millstone isn't the only case:
Explain, Dems tell Clinton delegate
E-mail challenges Clinton backer; she wonders where free speech went By Allison SherryThe Colorado Democratic Party would like Boulder delegate Sacha Millstone, who is devoted to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, to give up her spot as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Party officials said Monday that they won't insist Millstone resign. But in an e-mail last week, Billy Compton, state political director of the Colorado Democratic Party, ordered Millstone into his office to explain disparaging comments she made about Barack Obama.
Compton said the party had received a complaint about Millstone from another delegate.
"You are hereby directed to come in to the party Headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in light of these comments," the letter said.
Millstone, who has hired a lawyer, was infuriated.
"Isn't there a right to free speech? Isn't this right in line with our time-honored tradition with the Dems?" she said. "These intimidation tactics have a chilling effect on people feeling comfortable speaking up."
Millstone's lawyer wrote Compton asking for the rules that allow the party to threaten removal from the state delegation.
State party officials said Monday that the issue has been dropped.
"We wanted to explore with Ms. Millstone the possibility of her voluntarily resigning her position," Compton said. "I simply wanted to discuss the matter with her."
This week's back and forth underscores the escalating tension across the country among Clinton delegates.
Most loyal to Clinton say they simply want their vote for her to count at the convention, and then they'll get behind Obama before his acceptance speech at Invesco Field on Aug. 28.
"It's inevitable within a party of this size that there will be different views about the merits of the candidates that the parties put forward," said Daniel Kagan, a delegate representing Denver.
Kagan, who is circulating a petition among delegates nationally to get Clinton's name on the convention ballot, said it's "autocratic" of the party to force support of one candidate.
"It's ludicrously overambitious and an unattractive goal," he said.
Though Clinton could agree for her name to appear on the ballot, party insiders say that is unlikely.
A delegate from Wisconsin, Debra Bartoshevich, was kicked off her state's delegation after she vowed to support Republican presidential front runner Sen. John McCain when Clinton suspended her campaign.
Natalie Wyeth, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Convention Committee, said she was unaware of any other such cases.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Shannon Gilson issued a statement Monday saying it was the campaign's "priority to ensure Ms. Millstone's delegate status was not in jeopardy."
State Democratic Party chair Pat Waak, who said it would be nice to have a united delegation when 50,000 conventioneers arrive in Colorado, called the Millstone matter "moot."
"We're getting too near the convention, and she's refused to come in," Waak said.
Any effort to intimidate Clinton supporters won't work, at least not on at-large Clinton delegate Sonya Jaquez Lewis, who lives in unincorporated Boulder County.
"It makes me angry," Jaquez Lewis said. "It makes me want to now really be even louder about issues and concerns that before I was willing to look the other way."
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