Top Democratic officials enraged some of their most loyal supporters by keeping Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — the party’s top fund-raiser and most popular figure — from any significant role at their convention later this month.
“I think it’s a total slap in the face,” said voter Bob Kunst, a longtime Democrat from Florida. “Here’s a woman who raised $17 million for the party, and they’re putting her in a second-class position.”
“It’s a slap in the face,” agreed Judith Hope, a major party fund-raiser and former chairwoman of the New York State Democratic Party. “Not personally for Hillary, but for every woman in the Democratic Party and every woman in America.”
Much of that anger is being directed at their presumptive nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.
“We’re so frustrated with what’s happening within the party structure that we’re asking people to vote for themselves, not even vote for the Kerry/Edwards ticket,” said Mr. Kunst, who led a major effort to draft Mrs. Clinton into the primary. “As far as I’m concerned, Kerry can go jump in the lake. He’s not getting my support.”
Mrs. Clinton’s absence from any speaking role in the convention came as little surprise to Mr. Kunst, who said he negotiated for months with party officials to set up his HillaryNow.com booth at the convention to sell buttons and stickers celebrating the former first lady. In the end, they barred him from the convention.
“Assuming John Kerry and John Edwards lose in November, Hillary is the only person in position to win in 2008, and they’re already dumping on her,” he said. “They want to set up Edwards instead.”
Ms. Hope said she has not given up on Mr. Kerry and hopes — with help from an e-mail list of fellow female Democrats in New York — to persuade Mr. Kerry to find a speaking role for New York’s junior senator.
Of particular slight to Democrats is that party officials found time for Christie Vilsack, wife of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. She was credited with helping Mr. Kerry win the Iowa caucuses by endorsing him early, while her husband had to stand officially neutral.
“To include the wife of the governor of Iowa, who I’m sure is a wonderful woman, and not to include Hillary Clinton is just such a glaring injustice,” Ms. Hope said. “It is, frankly, very stupid. It’s a total outrage.”
Originally, it appeared as if Mrs. Clinton would be given a speaking role at the four-day convention in Boston.
“Senator Clinton will speak, also,” convention Chairman and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said earlier this week. “She’s a major star in the party.”
But when the list of speakers was released Tuesday, she was not included. Rather, she was lumped into a segment with all the Democratic female senators, led by Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland.
Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the Kerry campaign, told the New York Times that Mrs. Clinton wasn’t included on the speakers’ list because “she never asked.”
One Democrat who was not publicly bemoaning Mrs. Clinton’s downsized role in the convention was the former first lady herself.
“Senator Clinton is looking forward to attending what will be a great convention and continuing to work hard to elect John Kerry and John Edwards,” spokesman Philippe Reines said.
The list of those who will be speaking includes former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, as well as former Vice President Al Gore.
The only minorities on the list are Mr. Richardson and Rep. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, both of whom are Hispanic, and Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio, who is black.
But yesterday, after news leaked out that former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka might run for the Senate as a Republican, Democratic officials announced that their candidate for the same seat, Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, would deliver the keynote address at the convention.
“Barack Obama is an accomplished public servant and a leader in the Democratic Party,” said Alice Huffman, a convention chairwoman. “He is addressing the most diverse convention in Democratic Party history. The breadth and diversity of the delegates to this year’s national convention demonstrates the broad appeal of the Kerry-Edwards ticket.”
Nearly 40 percent of the more than 4,000 delegates to the convention are minorities, according to the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
“More African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans and Hispanics will attend the convention than ever before,” the DNC said.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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