Obama reinstates Calif. delegates

A member of the audience questions Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., about the possible role of former vice-president Al Gore in the Obama administration at a town hall meeting at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind., Thursday, April 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

LOS ANGELES—Facing a backlash from supporters, Barack Obama's presidential campaign reversed course Thursday and reinstated hundreds of people to lists that will be used to choose California's delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Campaign manager David Plouffe said in a letter to potential delegates that all names would be restored to ballots that will be used Sunday to elect the delegates, overturning the earlier decision. The letter did not refer to the complaints.

"We are confident that delegates elected from this pool will reflect the senator's commitment to a diverse and unified delegation at the national convention," Plouffe wrote. "An overwhelming number of supporters have signed up to run for delegate, so there will likely be lines and tight space at the caucus locations. We ask for everyone's patience and cooperation," he said.

Earlier this week, Obama's and Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign took advantage of party rules to purge scores of potential delegates in a bid to ensure that only their loyalists travel to the August convention in Denver where the party will anoint a presidential nominee.

Most of the cuts, about 900 names, were dropped by Obama, leading supporters to complain that they had been unfairly excluded. Clinton's campaign dropped about 50 names from its list of prospective delegates.

The names were culled without explanation from the campaign or the state party.

Party caucuses scheduled for Sunday will elect a slate of delegates for each candidate -- 134 for Clinton and 107 for Obama, for a total of 241. More than 2,000 candidates are running statewide.

Driven by fears that some prospective delegates might be concealing their true allegiances, the campaigns searched campaign finance data, scoured the Internet and made telephone calls to weed out people they believed to be dubious candidates.