Democrats rule out McCain delegate

Wisconsin Democrats on Friday ousted a delegate to the party’s national convention for saying she would vote for Republican John McCain for president in November.

The Wisconsin party’s administrative committee voted 23-0 to strip Debra Bartoshevich of her status as a delegate to the Denver convention next month.

Bartoshevich, 41, was pledged to Hillary Rodham Clinton. But when the New York senator suspended her campaign in June after Illinois Sen. Barack Obama clinched a majority of delegates, Bartoshevich told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she would support Arizona Sen. McCain.

On Friday, state committee members agreed that Bartoshevich had lost her privilege to be one of the state’s 92 delegates because of her comments and her affiliation with Citizens for McCain, a branch of his campaign designed to recruit independents and Democrats.

During a teleconference before the vote, Bartoshevich asked the committee to allow her to attend the convention as a Clinton delegate.

She noted that she had donated time and money to Clinton and still believed that the former first lady was the best candidate.

She said she had not decided whom to support and was open to backing Obama if he won her over. “I’d like to go to the convention and listen,” she said. She said her sister was a McCain supporter who signed her up for Citizens for McCain.

“You reached right back and hugged them,” committee member Dottie LeClaire said. “I have a problem with that.”