Democratic National Committeewoman Christine “Roz” Samuels said today that she was dumped from the New Jersey delegation last night because she flipped her support from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama back in February.
Samuels said she was called yesterday morning at 8:00 a.m. by Democratic State Chairman Joseph Cryan, who told her that Essex County Democratic Chairman Phil Thigpen wanted her off the ticket.
“One day notice,” she said. “They called me yesterday morning and told me I was off the ticket. And I said ‘You mean for what I did way in February? This is retaliation for February?’”
Samuels said that she was told she was thrown off the ticket because of her switch. Samuels officially switched to Obama on February 14th – less than one week before two South Jersey super delegates switched – but long before most north Jersey party leaders left the Clinton camp.
Samuels’s replacement will be former Assemblywoman Stephanie Bush-Baskette, who’s also from Essex County.
“I really have to find out what is the time limitation for pulling someone off a ticket. You can’t tell someone that morning the morning of the meeting. Usually you give a two week notice to someone if you’re going to fire them from the job,” she said, adding that she has run two recent successful Obama events in Montclair. “It’s just a vindictive thing because I had a couple good meetings, and I think (Thigpen) feels that way because he didn’t do it first.”
Thigpen could not immediately be reached for comment.
State Democratic Chairman Joe Cryan denied Samuels’s side of the story, but declined to elaborate.
“Mrs. Samuels is mistaken. I’ll leave it at that.”
Some Democratic sources say the reason is more complicated than Samuels’s switch to Obama, pointing to an adversarial relationship between her and Thigpen.
Samuels has served on the DNC since 2000. She will still get to go to the convention in her capacity as a super delegate, since her term doesn’t end until Sunday, July 31st – the night Obama will give his nomination acceptance speech at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
June Fisher, who last night was elected to her 7th term on the committee, said she didn’t know why Samuels was thrown off the ticket, but did not want to criticize the decision.
“I told that to Roz yesterday morning when she called me that it’s been my pleasure to serve with her. I didn’t make the choice or the decision,” she said. “I can’t go against the slate that includes me.”
Fisher said that Samuels was “a little upset, but feisty,” when she called her yesterday.
“Roz has a feisty streak to her that I admire. She had the courage to come last night and put in her name. She went down satisfied that she died fighting,” she said.
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