Clinton Backers Onboard With Obama

By JOHN REITMEYER, TRENTON BUREAU

If Hillary Clinton were accepting the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination this week, New Jersey delegates would have been front and center cheering her on.

Instead, they settled for watching Clinton make her case for Barack Obama’s candidacy Tuesday night from a section of stands just off the convention floor and to the right of the main stage at Denver’s Pepsi Center.

That’s OK, said New Jersey’s delegates, many of whom supported Clinton during the primary season.

“Tonight is all about unity,” said Joseph Ferriero, chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization and a Clinton supporter. “There’s not a question we are absolutely prepared to turn out a huge plurality [for Obama], not only in Bergen County, but in the state of New Jersey as well.”

North Haledon Assemblywoman Nellie Pou, sporting a Hillary Clinton sticker on her jacket, said she thought Clinton’s speech would help transfer the 18 million votes she won in the primaries to Obama.

“I happen to think she’s an incredible woman,” said Pou.

State Sen. Barbara Buono, speaking about Clinton earlier in the day, said she might cry a little bit watching Clinton on the big stage.

“But that doesn’t mean our party is split,” said Buono, D- Middlesex.

State Sen. Robert Gordon, an early Clinton supporter who’s now behind Obama, said Tuesday night’s convention speech was important for pulling the Clinton voters watching on television over to Obama.

“What’s important is to get that message to those disaffected Hillary supporters,” said Gordon, D-Fair Lawn.

Republican John McCain, the GOP’s presumptive nominee, is running a new ad with a former Clinton supporter saying she now supports the Republican candidate.

“I think that’s sheer idiocy,” said Gordon, whose district supported Clinton by more than 60 percent during the February primary. “There are more common values between Hillary and Obama than McCain.”

Governor Corzine, one of Clinton’s earliest supporters, said he’s moving on by stressing Clinton’s own message, which is to focus on what the future would hold if John McCain were to win in November.

“This is about changing the direction of the country,” Corzine said, citing home foreclosures, falling personal incomes and the Iraq war.

“We need to change the direction of the country,” Corzine said. “We know the last eight years under Bush are going to be the same thing you’re signing up for under McCain. We’ve got to get that message out to the public.”

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, a former Clinton campaign co-chairman, blamed talk of a party rift on “media hype.” He said Clinton deserves praise for supporting Obama as much as she has.

“You guys can’t have a good story without conflict,” Menendez said. “I have never seen somebody who lost a primary do more for the one who beat them so quickly.”

Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood, is one of the delegates from New Jersey officially pledged to Obama. Clinton’s message of party unity looking toward November is the right one, he said.

“It was a hard-fought campaign,” Johnson said. “There’s still some emotion out there.”

“The bottom line is to get a Democrat in the White House,” he said. “Obviously it’s a priority that we must try and get these people back into the fold.”

Before Clinton’s convention address, New Jersey delegates were focused on Obama.

Menendez rallied delegates with strong praise for Obama during a breakfast gathering at their hotel outside Denver.

“I will tell you now I am enlisted in the army of Barack Obama,” Menendez said.

The delegates also heard from Wellington Webb, the mayor of Denver from 1991 to 2003. Webb, Denver’s first black mayor, stressed that Obama’s candidacy is not just about his race.

“He is not the black candidate for president of the United States of America,” Webb said. “He is the candidate for president of the United States of America.”

Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer said Obama’s candidacy represents the hope and opportunity that America should be all about, especially for city residents like those he represents.

“That’s why it’s critically important that Senator Barack Obama gets to the White House so we can change that paradigm,” Palmer said.

The delegates also heard about Obama’s plans for environmental and energy policies from David Sandalow, a former Clinton administration official who is now serving as an Obama adviser.

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Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson contributed to this article. E-mail: reitmeyer@northjersey.com

(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.