Hillary Clinton Can Take California

From NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli

LOS ANGELES -- As the political focus turns to Super Tuesday, Clinton's campaign in delegate-rich California touted what it said was its strong standing one week out. And it's confident that nothing -- not even controversy over Bill Clinton's role or the momentum from Obama's big win in South Carolina -- can knock them down.

During a conference call with state reporters, the campaign noted the importance of early voting by mail. Fabian Nunez, speaker of the California Assembly, said more votes will be cast by mail in California than were cast in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina combined. "In some cases, enough votes are gonna be banked [before Feb. 5] to win the contest," Nunez said.

The most recent figures obtained from the California Association of County Election Officials (CACEO) show that 1,132,877 mail-in ballots have been returned, out of the more than 5 million that were requested. But CACEO president Steven Weir estimates that the actual number of returned ballots is already over 2 million. Weir also predicts that 47% of all votes will be cast by mail.

In 2004, just under 3 million votes were cast in the Democratic primary, while 2.1 million votes were cast in the uncontested Republican primary. For that primary, as with this one, there were also ballot initiatives driving some of the turnout. Weir says some of the ballots that have been returned actually indicate no choice for president. "[Some] came out to vote for the props," he said. "But this is being driven by the top of the tickets."

Capitalizing on these early voters was clearly a strategy of the Clinton campaign. "The more votes we can lock in now while she's still leading with double digits, is what some would all an insurance policy," said Luis Vizcaino, spokesperson for the Clinton campaign here.

Vizcaino said state voters are fiercely independent, and wouldn't be swayed in significant numbers by Obama's significant win in South Carolina. Participants in the conference call today were also asked several times about the endorsement from Sen. Ted Kennedy.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said that she spoke with Kennedy last night, and that he denied rumors that his endorsement was a reaction to former President Clinton's recent comments about race. "He said that … Obama really has this strong sense of inspiration and hope, and this has always been part of the Kennedy legacy," Feinstein said. "I take his statement at face value."

Feinstein later forcefully rejected the idea that Bill Clinton's role would hurt his wife. "Bill Clinton is not running for the presidency. Hillary Clinton is running for the presidency. And there should be no spin that confuses the two," Feinstein said. "Hillary speaks for herself, and hers is the voice that should be listened to."

MSNBC