Clinton Delegate Victory Bell: We’ll back Barack

August 26th, 2008 at 03:47pm Chuck Sweeny

Rockford Ald. Victory Bell, D-5th, is a Hillary Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. As you may know from reading my Tuesday column, other delegates from Rockford believe theĀ  media are hyping the feud angle beyond all belief.

Bell agrees. Here are my notes from our phone conversation this afternoon:

Victory Bell:

“This is, without question, a systematic move on the pat of
the media to cause confusion. I think Hillary has shown she wants to see the Democratic
Party win in November, and any resources she has at her disposal, she’s
encouraging her delegates to support Barack Obama heartily.”

“It really is the case that the media is sensationalizing on
the hype that is around this campaign. I have seen from all the elected officials, whether Hillary
supporters or Obama supporters, as Mayor Daley said this morning, once we go
though the primaries, and somenone gains the votes to be the nominee, the party
then must support that nominee 100 percent.”

“The Clinton floor leaders that
we meet with daily, right after the Illinois caucus meeting, made it very clear
that the Obama delegation had been very sensitive to the concerns that Haillary
has raised, and they have displayed that sensitivity by adding or deleting
certain points in the Rules Committee. So they advised us that we have good
reasons to support the Obama ticket.”

“And the other advice they gave to us, is Hillary probably
will release her delegates, but as it stands now, they may have her go through
the first roll call, which is agreed upon by Obama’s people.”

“I think when the Democratic Party leaves Denver, we’ll be
focused on not allowing the same outcome from this convention as what happened
in 1980 in New York (when Ted Kennedy’s supporters did not back Jimmy Carter’s reelection. Carter lost to Ronald Reagan.)

It’s rcusial to the Democratic Party for us to leave here
unified, prepare to be victorious in November.”

And that’s the word from Victory Bell, Clinton delegate and Rockford’s senior black elected official.

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