We are all going to the convention to support Gore. The centrist approach is dangerous because you can be considered a warmed-over Republican. The delegates represent a wide range of backgrounds that match the state's ethnically variegated Democratic electorate. The state party says that it met its goals for delegate selection of African-Americans, Hispanics, gays and lesbians and other minority groups. According to delegate Denise King, chairman of the Democratic Rural Conference, the party included her group in the delegate selection plan as an under-represented minority.
Democratic officials have good reason to cater to upstate interests.
Clinton's unusually strong showing even in Republican strongholds upstate enabled him to trounce Republican Bob Dole in 1996 with 60 percent of the statewide vote, the highest presidential percentage in the state since Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson ran up 69 percent against Republican Barry Goldwater in 1964. The other reason the Democrats need to appeal to voters north of New York City is the controversial Senate candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton. While the first lady is likely to win the votes of hardcore urban Democrats, she will need to win over upstate voters to achieve victory. Harold Ickes, a former top aide to President Clinton and now a campaign adviser to the first lady, is a New York delegate. Clinton is certain to mingle with the delegates from her adopted home state, though how much presence she will have at the convention is uncertain.