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Clinton backers to march during Democratic convention

BY JANIE LORBER | janie.lorber@newsday.com

August 7, 2008

WASHINGTON - Ardent Hillary Rodham Clinton backers plan to parade through Denver during the Democratic National Convention later this month in a last-ditch effort to win her the presidential nomination.

In the nine weeks since Barack Obama became the Democrats' presumptive nominee, the New York-based grassroots organization called 18 Million Voices has spawned chapters and Web sites in more than half the states in an apparently massive online network.

"First we were grieving and then we got angry," said Marilyn Fitterman of East Hampton, a member of the group and the former president of New York State National Organization of Women.

"I feel there's hope now that Hillary may get the nomination," she said.

The City of Denver issued a permit for the event to the group's Colorado branch for Aug. 26, the day Clinton is rumored to make the keynote address at the convention, the Rocky Mountain News reported.

The group plans to stage simultaneous events around the country at the time of the Denver parade, said spokeswoman Blain Whitford.

Whitford insisted that the event would not threaten party unity.

"What we are doing is not about Senator Obama," she said. "It's a celebration of Hillary."

But Fitterman, a longtime Democrat, said she will not vote for Obama. "Barack Obama was selected, not elected," she has written in letters to hundreds of Democratic convention delegates on behalf of Clinton.

In appearances and in an e-mail to supporters yesterday, however, Clinton again pledged to work for Obama's election.