Mannie Rodriguez

Mannie Rodriguez (born c. 1950^[1]) is a member of the Democratic National Committee from Colorado. The owner of a halfway house operation in Denver, Colorado, Rodriguez was elected to the DNC in 2004. As a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Rodriguez publicly supported Hillary Clinton before Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee; she now plans to cast her convention vote for Obama.

Biography

Rodriguez, a resident of Denver, Colorado^[2] was the founder of Independence House in 1976, an adult community corrections program that operates residential and non-residential facilities in the Denver region for clients referred to them by criminal justice agencies. He remains the owner of the privately run program.^[3][4] Rodriguez is married; he and his wife, Corinne, have two grown children: Robert and Rose Marie.^[1]

Rodriguez was elected to one of three seats on the Democratic National Committee from Colorado in 2004, after having served as the second vice chair of the Colorado Democratic Party.^[5] During his term, he was heavily involved in fundraising for Colorado Democrats, including raising $20,000 for Ken Salazar's U.S. Senate race and the Congressional campaigns of John Salazar and Ed Perlmutter. In 2007, he announced his candidacy for a second term representing Colorado on the DNC.^[6] He is also a member of the DNC's Hispanic Caucus.^[7]

As a member of the Democratic National Committee, he is a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In 2007, he announced his intention to vote for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.^[8] Despite calls from supporters of Barack Obama to change his support in light of Obama's landslide win in Colorado's February 2008 caucuses, Rodriguez pledged to vote for Clinton should there be a brokered convention,^[9] and has been critical of the Obama campaign's appropriation of the phrase "Yes, we can" from the Hispanic community.^[10] However, after Obama became the Democrat's presumptive nominee in June, Rodriguez declared public support for Obama,^[11] and in September he was named to the Colorado Latino Advisory Council for Obama's campaign.^[12]

References