Update IV: All prospective delegates have been reinstated.
Obama is taking Clinton at her word that pledged delegates are in play and taking strong measures to ensure pledged delegates are loyal. The Obama campaign cut 900 prospective delegates (a record number) from the running for this weekend's California Democratic Convention based on questions of allegiance and an overabundance of prospective delegates. Newspaper reports vary for the Clinton cuts, from 36 to 50.
The Obama campaign must be worried about pledged delegates if they are taking these kinds of measures to control who becomes a pledged delegate in California. I believe this is an indicator that Clinton is serious about her threat to disregard the will of the voters by stealing pledged delegates. By now, you've probably heard what Clinton has said about pledged delegates, but just in case you haven't, here is the infamous pledged delegate quote from Sen. Clinton:
Pledged delegates in most states are not pledged. You know, there is no requirement that anybody vote for anybody. They're just like superdelegates.
I guess that depends on your definition of the word pledged.
On the other hand, Chris Lavery, Clinton's California Political Director had this to say:
...the people running as Obama delegates (should) [sic] support Sen. Obama. We don't believe that anyone should try to beat the system.
The chair of Sacramento for Obama was concerned about a number of delegates that were not known to the Obama campaign and questioned their motives:
I don't know what their motivation is. I'd like to trust that it's pure. We just want to make sure we work as hard as we can to have rock-solid support for Obama.
David Karol, a political science professor at UC Berkley says that historically, for the most part, pledged delegates haven't changed sides except when migrating from a candidate who has withdrawn:
I think it is unlikely that we will see a significant amount of switching on the part of pledged delegates as long as both candidates remain active. In the recent past switching has not been very important and has chiefly taken the form of delegates moving from defunct campaigns to the camp of the prospective nominee.
California Democratic Party Spokesperson Bob Mulholland said that it's not that often that a candidate blocks someone from being a delegate unless they've donated to the other candidate and that this year's cuts are unprecedented.
On the other hand, according to Nathaniel Bach at Huffington Post, some die-hard Obama fans were also cut from the list (including him). He says the Obama campaign needs to right the wrong and reinstate the entire contingent of prospective delegates. He says that one Obama supporter who traveled to 10 states to volunteer for Obama was cut. At the least, he'd like an explanation from the Obama campaign of why he and other Obama supporters were cut.
Merriam-Webster's word of the day today is velleity. As in, perhaps the Obama campaign was concerned that some delegates commitment to Obama might be more of a velleity than an unyielding loyalty (Sorry, I saw the word of the day email and just had to throw it out there).
California Obama Spokesperson Don Morrison said the rolls were cut due to both allegiance questions and time constraints. According to the San Jose Mercury:
In some districts, more than 90 people had signed up to run for as few as three delegate positions. In the 17th District, which includes most of Santa Cruz County as well as Monterey and San Benito counties, 26 people had signed up for two posts.
90 people running for a 3-delegate spot is a bit over the top. Were they really going to let all those people get up and give a 1 minute speech? That would take up at least two hours, plus time to vote, and they'd still only have 3 down and a few hundred left to be selected. Obviously some people were cut because their allegiance was dubious, but others needed to be cut for the sake of practicality, which is no doubt going to leave some Obama supporters disappointed.
If anything, we should see this as a harbinger of good things for the Obama campaign. Hordes of people signing up to be Obama delegates in a state where he lost. This bodes well for November.
UPDATE I:
Here is is the final list of people who will be on the ballot to run as a District-Level delegate in the April 13 caucuses. If you were in the running to be a delegate, you can check there to see if you've been cut.
UPDATE II:
Per the National Delegate Selection Rules each campaign reviewed and returned to the CDP the approved list of District-Level delegate applicants. If you were cut and have questions regarding this process, these are your contacts:
Hillary Clinton campaign at delegatesforhillary@gmail.com
or
Barack Obama campaign at (866) 675-2008, option 6
UPDATE III:
I've seen multiple reports that prospective California delegates are just getting notification this morning via email that they've been cut. If you're a prospective delegate, check the list linked in Update I, and check your email.
UPDATE IV:
The Obama campaign has reinstated all prospective delegates describing the culling as a mistake made by low level campaign staff.