Clinton Asks Pledged Delegates To Support Obama (Updated)

Multiple Democratic sources say that Sen. Hillary Clinton, in a series of private conversations and conference calls, continues to urge her pledged delegates to vote for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton plans a series of calls with superdelegates, interest groups and state delegations over the next few days. (One of them took place last night, according to this report from Iowa's Quad Cities-Globe-Gazette.)

“She’s doing calls with supports and delegates and various other groups of supporters,” said Mo Elliethee, a spokesperson. “What she did was reiterate what she said on Saturday. She thanked them for their hard work and their dedication and all that they did for her and celebrated some of the accomplishments of her campaign…. And she urged them to get behind Sen. Obama and to work just as hard to elect him president.”

A Clinton spokesman said that Clinton is not technically releasing her delegates -- doing so would cause many of them to be dropped from the slate -- but noted that both Bill Bradley and Howard Dean did not formally release their slates until their conventions.

Still, Clinton's moves this week suggest that she opposes grassroots efforts by some of her supporters to hang on until the convention and submit Clinton's name for president or vice president. It also suggests that her campaign does not intend to challenge the DNC rules and bylaws committee decision to award Obama some of Clinton's delegates from Michigan. Pledged delegates and superdelegates can vote for whomever they want, but a split convention -- even if the split was lopsided -- would no doubt embarrass Obama.

In other Clinton news, campaign manager Maggie Williams, senior adviser Cheryl Mills, and staffers from every other Clinton campaign department will remain on the payroll through at least June. The process of closing down a campaign is almost as complex as is the process to create one.