Clinton challenges Obama delegates

AUSTIN - Spurned by the Texas Democratic Party in its effort to stall this weekend's county conventions, Hillary Clinton's campaign said Wednesday it is mobilizing caucus supporters and helping those who want to challenge the legitimacy of some Barack Obama delegates.

The Clinton campaign itself won't challenge Obama's delegates at the approximately 280 county and state Senate district conventions Saturday, said Clinton state chairman Garry Mauro.

"I have always known the grass roots to generate credentials questions," he said. "There's no systematic approach that we're taking to challenge anybody at any level."

But the campaign is using a behind-the-scenes strategy. It is giving legal advice to some voters who are mounting challenges and is having volunteer lawyers closely watch the proceedings, Mauro said.

"Are there going to be corrections in mathematical errors? Yes," he said, describing hypothetical examples of how a local delegate count might be changed.

Obama's campaign also has people looking closely at delegate counts and individual counties, said spokesman Josh Earnest.

"Our people are there to ensure that the process goes well and not to try to obstruct the process, and hopefully that's what their people will be doing as well," Earnest said.

Both campaigns have staffers in Texas to round up supporters and hold training sessions before Saturday's convention caucuses.

Hundreds of thousands of people attended Texas Democratic precinct caucuses after the party's primary concluded March 4. Those caucuses began the selection of 67 pledged delegates to the Democratic National Convention. The next step is the county conventions this weekend, which will pick delegates to the state convention in June.

The candidate with the most supporters signing in at each convention level will benefit in the awarding of caucus delegates.

Last week, the state Democratic Party refused a request from Clinton's campaign to postpone county conventions and take extra steps to verify the signatures of election night caucus-goers.

State party Chairman Boyd Richie said the party will not "set up an unnecessary, ad hoc verification process" and said county and Senate district conventions already have credentials rules in place to address complaints and problems.

Clinton's campaign said it still wanted more time to review March 4 caucus sign-in sheets and locate and verify voters, but that it would work with the time allowed.

The campaign has said it received more than 2,000 complaints of violations following the huge Texas turnout. Among the problems cited were caucuses starting before precinct polling places closed and results being taken from head or hand counts instead of a written roll.

In an unofficial and incomplete caucus tally, the state Democratic Party reported Obama was ahead of Clinton 56 percent to 44 percent after 41 percent of precinct caucuses reported.

Clinton narrowly won the primary stage of the contest, which allocated 126 delegates.

Representatives of the Obama and Clinton campaigns in Hidalgo County - a Clinton stronghold on the Texas-Mexico border - spent Wednesday trying to resolve final disputes before Saturday's county convention.

The Obama campaign challenged the math used to apportion delegates in some county precinct caucuses. The Clinton campaign also disputed figures in some precincts, but had not filed a formal challenge, said Hidalgo County Democratic Chairman Juan Maldonado.

Maldonado said he expected the campaigns would have lingering disagreements resolved before the convention.

"There are no incidents," Maldonado said. "There are no reports of anyone trying to circumvent the process."