WASHINGTON – The state Democratic Party will proceed Saturday in Tampa with the selection of 40 at-large presidential delegates, despite no agreement yet between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and national party leaders on seating any of Florida’s delegates.

These at-large delegates, who are typically local-level elected officials, party activists and party leaders, are to be chosen based proportionally on the results of the Jan. 29 primary won by Clinton.

The state party’s 200-member executive committee will pick from the nearly 400 aspirants seeking the at-large spots, starting at 10 a.m. at the Tampa Airport Hilton Westshore.

The 40 at-large delegates are among 185 Florida delegates that would normally be allotted based on its primary results. There state also would have 26 other delegates—mostly automatic super delegates who are not determined by primary voters—for a total of 211.

There was no immediate comment from the Obama campaign.

But at least one prominent state Democrat, national committeeman Allan Katz of Tallahassee—an Obama supporter—says he wants the state party to “put everything on hold.”

The should wait, said Katz, until the Democratic National Committee’s Rules & By-Laws committee reviews its decision to strip Florida and Michigan of all of its delegates to the party’s nominating convention, and whether it should be modified..

Katz said it makes no sense to select more delegates before the Florida delegate flap is resolved – especially based on a proportion of the Jan. 29 vote that likely will not stand up.

“It’s much harder to un-ring a bell,” he said.

The state party is proceeding with the at-large delegate selection because it is following its approved delegate-selection plan, said spokesman Mark Bubriski, adding that adjustments could later be made. There is no intent to benefit one candidate over the other, he said..

Clinton, who trails Obama in the Democratic presidential delegate tally, has been saying her victory in Florida’s Jan. 29 primary should count as is. She won the primary with 50 percent of the vote to his 33 percent.

But the Obama campaign contends that awarding delegates based on the Florida primary wouldn’t be fair, because he candidates were told it wouldn’t count. and they didn’t campaign here, even though their names were on the ballot.

That DNC’s rules committee review has been scheduled for May 31 in Washington. As things stand, the state still has no delegates to be sent to the convention based on that committee’s action against Florida last year for violating its primary calendar rules.

But DNC officials have said they expect some Florida representation at the Denver convention will be worked out, with the cooperation of both the Obama and Clinton campaigns.

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