LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- Michigan Democrats met Saturday to choose their first round of national convention delegates, even though the state has been stripped of its delegates by the Democratic National Committee.
Party members were selecting 83 delegates and 15 alternates at 15 district conventions around the state. Delegates were allocated according to the results of the Jan. 15 primary, which New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won. An official list of delegates and alternates was to be released early in the week by the Michigan Democratic Party.
"It appears that there's been good turnout at all the conventions around the state," Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer said Saturday afternoon. "Nobody has called with anything out of the ordinary."
In Lansing, where the 8th District meeting took place at a United Auto Workers union hall, the contest to elect the Clinton delegates took less than an hour.
But 40 percent of Michigan voters in the Democratic primary backed Uncommitted after candidates Barack Obama, John Edwards and two others removed their names from the ballot. Competition around the state for those 36 delegate and two alternate uncommitted seats -- all of which were expected to go to Obama supporters -- was much more intense, especially since about 450 people registered to run for them.
In Lansing, Griffin Rivers beat 17 others for the male uncommitted spot, while Irene McDonnell Cahill bested 21 others for the female uncommitted spot. Both back the Illinois senator, as was evidenced by Rivers' black T-shirt emblazoned with the words: "No drama with Obama."
Rivers, of Lansing Township, is chairman of the Ingham County Democratic Party and chief of staff for state Rep. George Cushingberry of Detroit. Cahill, of Howell, is a Teamsters union member active in the Greater Lansing Labor Council. Neither has ever attended a national convention. Both said Obama is energizing the party in a new way.
"I think he'll be a tremendous asset in building the Democratic Party back to the status it once was," Rivers said. "The groundswell is there."
Around the state, caucuses to fill the uncommitted slots ran longer than the Clinton caucuses, largely because the Clinton campaign already had whittled the list of 450 people who'd originally applied to run for 47 delegate and 13 alternate spots down to about 150.
Some potential Clinton delegates removed their names Saturday during the caucuses, leaving the spots largely to party leaders. At the 8th District caucus, the two male slots went to Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and North Oakland Democratic Club Chairman Phillip Reid after several other men took their names off the list.
The female spots went to Chong-Anna Canfora, regional manager for U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and retired state worker Anna Strong, both of Lansing. Only one other woman ran to be a delegate. UAW legislative coordinator Nadine Nosal of Lansing won the alternate spot.
The state's remaining Democratic delegates and alternates are expected to be chosen in May. Michigan Democrats are selecting delegates even though they and Florida Democrats were stripped of their delegates by the DNC after the states broke party rules by holding presidential primaries in January.
Michigan plans to fill all of its 128 pledged delegate spots despite the DNC action. It also has 28 superdelegates. Most of the superdelegates aren't yet pledged to a particular candidate, although some have announced their favorites.
Both states are working with national and state party leaders and the Clinton and Obama campaigns to get their delegates seated at the Aug. 25-28 Democratic National Convention in Denver. So far, no agreements have been reached.
But Brewer remains optimistic that the delegates will be seated. He said any agreements reached with the Clinton and Obama campaigns on how the delegates should be divided shouldn't affect the delegates chosen Saturday, since the 73-55 ratio between the two candidates can easily be adjusted when the rest of the delegates are selected at a Democratic State Central Committee meeting in May.
Clinton delegate Strong said she thinks the former first lady is the better candidate.
"She knows better how things are done nationally and globally," she said.
But the 8th District Clinton and Obama delegates also said they'd back whichever Democrat wins the nomination.
"At the end of the day, we need to come together," Strong said.