Democrats in New Mexico squabble over superdelegate

A group of Hillary Rodham Clinton supporters, including four New Mexico superdelegates, has accused the state Democratic Party of breaking national and state party rules when it nominated a 12th superdelegate.

The woman chosen has said she is undecided, but the Clinton group believes she is a Barack Obama supporter. The Clinton supporters nominated their own candidate, who they think leans toward Clinton.

Led by former state party chairman John Wertheim, the group is calling for a runoff election by mail to determine New Mexico's final superdelegate.

"With the procedure for selecting the unpledged ad-on delegate having gone so awry, it seems best to solve the problem within the Democratic Party of New Mexico family," the Clinton supporters wrote in a letter to the state party chairman, Brian Colon.

Party spokesman Josh Geise said Thursday the party followed both national and state party rules and will not hold a runoff election.

In New Mexico, Clinton received 14 delegates to Obama's 12. With the race so close, the votes of the superdelegates are expected to come into play.

The Clinton supporters have called for the party to hold a runoff election via mail between the two highest vote-getters at last Saturday's state central committee meeting: Laurie Weahkee, who was the superdelegate selected, and Heather Townsend, whom the Clinton supporters tried to nominate from the floor.

The group says that state party rules require a runoff because none of the add-on superdelegate candidates received a majority vote. Weahkee received 35 percent of the vote, Townsend 33 percent and Charlotte Little, also nominated by Colon, 29 percent. Three percent of voters chose other candidates, the letter said.

Colon ruled that the votes for Townsend could not be counted, Geise said, because there was no provision in party rules for a nomination of a superdelegate candidate from the floor.