Colorado Democratic Party Threatens Clinton Delegate For Being Critical Of Obama

Recently a Wisconsin Clinton delegate was stripped of her status for stating that she might vote for John McCain. Taking a page out of the Wisconsin Democratic Party's playbook, the Colorado Democratic Party is now threatening another Clinton Delegate.

Debra Bartoshevich gave a public interview where she announced that she would support John McCain rather than Barack Obama. The Wisconsin Democratic Party wasted no time in voting to strip her delegate status and ban her from the Democratic convention. Today it is being reported that the Colorado Democratic Party is threatening one of their Clinton national delegates, Sacha Millstone of Boulder, Colorado, for making statements critical of Barack Obama. The Colorado Democratic Party alleges that Millstone made "disparaging public remarks" about Obama but Millstone asserts that her remarks were not public, they were made to a fellow delegate, in a supposed private e-mail exchange. Her remark to the fellow delegate was that she was not sure whether she would vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. After that email exchange, that fellow delegate filed a complaint with the Colorado Democratic Party suggesting that she be stripped of her national delegate status. That led to William Compton who is the political director of Colorado's Democratic Party. to email Millstone saying, "You are directed to come in to the party headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate ..." Millstone says she sees this as a threat, stating, "I think that one of the reasons I got this letter was to intimidate me. It sounded very totalitarian. I thought it sounded undemocratic and I was completely shocked." She continues on to say, "Having conversations on the pros and cons of those candidates, I don't think this is an unusual thing at all in the Democratic Party." The chair of the Colorado Democratic Party, Pat Waak, claims that when a complaint is issued, they are required to hear the complaint and decide whether it should be brought to the rules committee. When Waak was asked if private correspondence can be used to investigate complaints, her response was, "We have used documents, memos, other things in the past where complaints have been filed. We have used whatever comes to us. That does not mean it goes to the rules committee."

Waak said the investigation and e-mail from Compton was not made public by the Colorado Democratic Party and regrets that it is in the public domain.

Waak concludes by saying that as far as they are concerned the situation with Millstone is over. Millstone "firmly" believes the email to her was a direct message to Clinton delegates throughout the nation warning them not to criticize Barack Obama if they wish to keep their national delegate status and attend the Democratic convention in August. Millstone has the last word by saying "I think that it was calculated to have an impact on other delegates and I think this kind of communication does have a very chilling impact on other delegates because people become afraid to speak up. They become afraid to say what they think." She concludes the interview with "You can't get unity by telling people to shut up."