Las Vegan to play role in nomination

WASHINGTON -- Former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates expects to play a key role on Saturday when 30 Democratic Party activists could tip the party's presidential nomination.

Atkinson Gates has come under pressure as the party's Rules and Bylaws Committee gets ready to decide whether delegates from Michigan and Florida should be seated at the Democratic National Convention in August.

"I have received tons of e-mails and many, many phone calls from both press as well as supporters on both sides -- more so on the Clinton side than the Obama side," Gates said on Wednesday.

Some of the calls "have been downright nasty," Atkinson Gates said, declining to say whom they were from.

The Clinton camp argues "we need to seat 100 percent of both delegations," Atkinson Gates said. "The Obama people have not been as vocal about it. They are just saying whatever you do, it just needs to be a fair process."

Democrats in Michigan and Florida were stripped of their convention delegates after they broke party rules and held early primaries. Clinton won both states. Obama had his name taken off the Michigan ballot. He was on the ballot in Florida.

Clinton has mounted a furious drive to have the delegates seated, which would enable her to cut into Obama's lead and bolster her argument that she would be the party's stronger candidate in the fall.

At an all-day meeting in Washington on Saturday, the rules committee will decide whether the delegates should be restored, and if so, how many. Various scenarios have been proposed that would grant Clinton a majority of the delegates but not enough to overcome Obama's lead.

Atkinson Gates, a Clark County commissioner from 1993 to 2007, has been on the rules committee for the past year. Of the 30 members, 13 support Clinton, eight are for Obama and the rest are uncommitted or have declined to say whom they support, according to The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper.

The Hill counted Atkinson Gates as publicly neutral.

Atkinson Gates said the undeclared rules committee members could hold the key to deciding the controversy. She said she was undecided on how she will vote on Saturday.

"Our goal is not so much the candidates but making sure the rules are intact," she said. "Whatever we do now could have an impact in 2012. It is important for us to restore the integrity of the process."

Atkinson Gates said she would have preferred to maintain a hard line against Florida and Michigan.

"They did break the rules and as far as I am concerned the elections in both states do not count," she said.

"What is the sense of having rules if you don't follow them," she said.

But, she said, "as far as being fair, you still had people who went out and voted."

Also, the Democrats cannot risk harming their chances in the two states that are expected to be critical in the general election, she said.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.