Delegates chosen to Democratic Convention

Six district-level delegates to the Democratic National Convention from Congressional District 14, to which Palo Alto belongs, were chosen by Sunday’s caucus.

For Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), Gunn High School senior and national high-school campaign director Molly Kawahata won a seat.

So did Roger Hu, team coordinator for Obama’s Silicon Valley office — located in Palo Alto at 3898 El Camino Real.

Julie Lythcott-Haims, Stanford University’s dean of freshmen and transfer students, is the third winning Obama delegate.

Matt Haney, a Stanford Law School student and campus coordinator of Stanford Students for Obama, was chosen as an alternate delegate. He will only vote should a pledged delegate such as Kawahata, Hu or Lythcott-Haims falls ill at the convention.

The group plans to write a live blog from the convention floor so folks at home can follow the action, Kawahata said.

Watching community members — including many fellow Gunn students — turn up to vote showed her how local district-delegate selection is, she said.

For Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York), Lorraine Hariton, Bruce Swenson and James Thurber, who were running as a slate, won seats.

Swenson is a trustee of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It will be Thurber’s third convention.

While the Obama vote occurred in Sunnyvale, Clinton’s vote was in Palo Alto at Cubberley Community Center.

The Clinton slate won by getting friends and relatives to show up for a caucus few know about, Thurber said.

“It’s a popularity contest,” he said, noting 611 ballots were cast at Cubberley. He was surprised to win in a highly competitive race against 23 other candidates, he said.

District-level delegates make up about half the delegates voting at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver.

California will send 370 pledged and 62 alternate delegates to the convention, according to Bob Mulholland, a campaign advisor at the party’s state office.

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were each allotted three delegates from Congressional District 14 after the Feb. 5 primary, based on vote proportions.

Roughly 23,000 Democrats statewide voted Sunday afternoon on about 2,500 candidates competing for 241 slots, according to the party Web site.