It’s a miracle! On the third try the Clinton Campaign finalized their eligible delegates to compete in tonight’s congressional district caucuses.

On Wednesday some delegate list snafus popped up where Clinton supporters found their names mysteriously purged from the rolls, but The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix Blog is reporting all’s well that ends well.

The new list reinstated almost all of the initially disapproved delegates and adding a list of 27 names that weren’t originally on the list.

This is at a stark contrast with the Obama camp that managed to approve all its potential delegates at first bat. The Political Fix surmises that a lot of the delegate mess was due to the Clinton’s filtering the Missouri delegates for loyalty to Clinton. A lot of the delegates had ties to state Auditor Susan Montee, who supports Obama, and Attorney General Jay Nixon, who is remaining “aggressively neutral.”

Reporters at Congressional Quarterly Online are taking a peak at some Missouri Republican strongholds that may be ripe for the picking by Democrat insurgents.

CQ singles out two prime House races in the sixth district, consisting of the rural northwest as well as portions of Kansas City and its suburbs, and the ninth featuring northeast Missouri and Columbia.

The sixth district race stars a four-term Republican incumbent Rep. Sam Graves fighting to stave off former Kansas City Mayor, Democrat opponent Kay Barnes. The fight for the ninth is a nonagon battle royal, featuring no less than five Republicans and four Democrats including current Republican Rep. John Hulshof who’s absconded away to run for governor, leaving his district exposed.

The GOPers are state Reps. Bob Onder and Danie Moore; Brock Olivo, a pro-footballer and Mizzou alum; and former state Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. The Dems consist of state Rep. Judy Baker, county commissioner Lyndon Bode, Steve Gaw, the former state House Speaker, and Ken Jacob, who lost a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in 2004.

Like with many Dem. versus GOP battles squaring up for the fall, fund-raising is the dog whistle of potential trouble-a-brewin’.

With more than $1 million raised and $743,000 cash on hand through the end of 2007, Barnes is among the best-funded candidates who are challenging incumbents of the opposite party. Republicans, though, are painting Barnes as a “big-city mayor” and touting Graves’ roots in rural northwestern Missouri. Graves is also well-funded, having reported $1.2 million in receipts and $868,000 cash on hand as of Dec. 31.

Hulshof waited until late January to announce his bid for governor, so most of the candidates to succeed him got off to a fairly late fundraising start. The only exception was Democrat Baker, who entered the race last year as a possible challenger to Hulshof and raised $103,000 by Dec. 31. Candidates in this and all other House races are due to file their next campaign finance reports to the Federal Election Commission by April 15 for activity through March 31.

CQ doesn’t like the Dems chances in other places in Missouri, ranking the Show-Me-State as a righty, hence singling out these districts as the Dems best chances in the GOP’s Fortress of Conservative Missourian Solitude.

At the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Political Fix Blog we learn that it’s not just the Ron Paul-ites getting particular over cherry picking delegates to send to the convention. The Clintonistas are giving their rolls a thorough run through as well. So thorough that some die hard Clinton supporters found their names mysteriously purged from the list.

The Democratic Party sent the list of elected delegates to the campaigns, and the list of Clinton supporters came back with many names crossed out. One such delegate was former state rep Craig Hosmer, Greene County Democratic Party chairman. “As far as I know, we’re back on,” he said Wednesday. Hosmer speculated that part of the problem is that some of the delegates hadn’t been active in the Clinton campaign. As county party chairman, he had maintained public neutrality until the county caucus.

Who knew the Democratic Caucus Santa would be busting out his “naughty or nice” list mid-March!

CBS 2 in New York City is reporting that disgraced New York state Gov. Eliot Spitzer is to resign Wednesday morning at an 11:30 a.m. ET from his office.

His resignation will mean Lt. Gov. David Patterson will succeed him as the state’s 55th governor and it’s first black and legally blind governor.

Spitzer has been embroiled in a sex scandal involving moving large amounts of money through different shell companies to pay for a high-end escort service that was part of an FBI probe into Spitzer’s suspicious money movements. They initially suspected bribery but instead found a prostitution ring where Spitzer paid $4,300 to a prostitute from the service for two hours at a hotel in Washington, D.C.

Patterson, 53, is a well-liked figure in New York and is a native who was born in Queens. According to the Agence Frace-Presse he was elected as a state senator from Harlem in 1985 and moved up to become the minority leader in 2002. He introduced legislation on stem cell research, alternative energy and domestic violence.

He lives in Harlem with his wife and two children.

UPDATE [7:29 PM]: CNN has projected Sen. Barack Obama as the winner of the Mississippi primary. This was considered an easy win for Obama due to high turnout among African Americans who, according to CNN, make up as much as 60 percent of the Democratic vote in the state and were trending in favor of the candidate.

How the vote falls will determine how many of Mississippi’s 33 delegates Obama will receive.

ORIGINAL STORY: Depending on who you ask this is a meaningful fight for delegates or a mere formality in Mississippi today where the latest primary in a season of primary fever for the Democratic nomination for president.

Despite wet conditions in part of the state, Miss. election officials report that the turnout is good at the polls where Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are vying for delegates in Dixie - the cotton rich state of Mississippi.

The Associated Press is reporting that Obama is the favorite to win Mississippi which has a large black Democratic electorate. Obama has been successful in pulling more than 80 percent of the black votes in most states.

This is the latest dust-up leading to a decisive battle in Pennsylvania April 22nd. The AP said that Clinton popped up in Pennsylvania yesterday with Clinton not expecting to win Mississippi. Obama was also on his way to Pennsylvania as he made on last stop in Greenville, Miss., speaking on the economic strife in the Mississippi delta. The day before Obama was in Columbus and Jackson, the state capitol.

Thirty-three delegates are in play.

Obama used his appearances in Mississippi to shoot down Clinton’s veep talk, poo-poo any such arrangement when he’s leading in delegates and states won. He was especially direct in his criticism of Clinton’s statements pointing at the bipolar nature of Clinton’s campaign who has attack Obama as being unprepared and too inexperienced to be president while tossing the joint ticket bait around liberally.

“I don’t know how somebody who is in second place is offering the vice presidency to the person who is first place,” Obama said, drawing cheers and a lengthy standing ovation from about 1,700 people. He added: “I am not running for vice president. “I am running for president of the United States of America.”

Later, at a rally in Jackson with 9,000 people, Obama painted Clinton as part of the Washington establishment whose time has come and gone.

The nation does not need “the same old folks doing the same old things, talking the same old stuff,” he said, essentially lumping Clinton with President Bush and Republican candidate John McCain.

In other election news:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was in St. Louis yesterday raking in some much needed cash for his national campaign. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that McCain made an appearance at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac hotel for a $1,000-per-person event.

The party was hosted by some of the toniest families in the region, including the Busches of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., the Taylors of Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the Foxes of Harbour Group.

Today McCain is having a town hall meeting with the employees of Savvis Inc., a West County based company. At the event he’s supposed to pump up his campaign message, covering the War on Terror to improving the economy.

Clinton dodged questions in Scranton, Penn. regarding New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s sex scandal that has rocked the state. Spitzer was a Clinton supporter who is a super delegate and has been a fund raiser for her campaign.

“I don’t have any comment on that,” she said when asked about reports that Spitzer allegedly paid for sex with a high-priced call girl at a Washington hotel. “Obviously, I am sending my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family,” Clinton said.

Pardon us for being a little slow with this, we’re still getting caught up from a busy few days (more on that later), but last Thursday, the night Democrats all over the city gathered for the first round of selecting delegates to the national convention, there was a little bit of controversy in one northside ward.

At Yeatman-Liddell Elementary in the 21st Ward, caucus organizers Alderman Bennice Jones King, and her cousin, former state rep Amber Boykins, barred state rep candidate Chris Carter to entering the gymnasium where the caucus was being held.

Confused about why he wasn’t being allowed to watch the proceedings, Carter, who was accompanying a Democratic Party monitor, was told that since he was a candidate for office and not a resident of that ward, he couldn’t enter. To validate her point, Boykins later told the entire group of caucusers (see the video below), she called up Democratic Party Executive Director Ken Franklin to explain the situation. According to Boykins, Franklin agreed with her decision.

After the meeting, we ran into Carter, who’s running for the seat being vacated by term-limited State Rep. Connie Johnson (According to Carter, Johnson recently publicly endorsed his candidacy). Carter said there were no hard feelings and he looked forward to campaigning in the one precinct of the 21st Ward which his district runs through.

Carter’s opponent in the August 5th primary is 27th Ward Committeeman Curtis Royston.

Editor’s note: This reporter will soon be a candidate for Committeeman of the 21st Ward and was elected as a Democratic delegate at the meeting in question.

With all this talk about the significance of superdelegates and the debate over how pledged delegates won through elections should decide the nomination, well, just who are these delegates?

Well, one could be you.

The National Democratic Party has allocated 88 National Convention Delegates to Missouri (72 of whom will be pledged Delegates) and 12 National Convention Alternates. In addition to these National Convention Delegates and Alternates, starting on February 28, Missouri Democrats will elect more than 2,000 delegates and alternates from ward, township, legislative district, and county conventions who will be eligible to attend their March 27, 2008 Congressional District Conventions and the Missouri State Democratic Convention on May 10, 2008.

Caucuses to determine these delegates will be held on Thursday, February 28 at locations in each ward. Doors will open at 6:30 PM and close at 7:30 PM. Observers will be permitted in after 7:30 PM, but they will not be allowed to participate in the caucus.

Here are the St. Louis City locations as listed on the Missouri Democratic Party’s website:

Ward 1 - Mathew Dickey Boys & Girls Club
Ward 2 - North Park United Methodist
Ward 3 - Clay School Gymnasium
Ward 4 - Pleasant Grove Baptist Church
Ward 5 - Carr Square Community Center
Ward 6 - Southside Wellness Center
Ward 7 - St Raymond’s Hall
Ward 8 - Southwest Garden Neighborhood Assoc
Ward 9 - Democratic Headquarters
Ward 10 - Not Listed
Ward 11 - Ivory Theatre
Ward 12 - St Lucas Church
Ward 13 - Firefighter’s Hall
Ward 14 - Firefighter’s Hall
Ward 15 - St Marian Middle School
Ward 16 - Buder Library
Ward 17 - Park Place Apts
Ward 18 - Roosevelt Town
Ward 19 - JBL Senior Center
Ward 20 - Monroe School
Ward 21 - Yateman CEC School
Ward 22 - Not Listed
Ward 23 - Not Listed
Ward 24 - Seamus Mc Daniels
Ward 25 - St Anthony Parish Hall
Ward 26 - St Paul Church AME
Ward 27 - Greater Pentacostal Church
Ward 28 - St Louis Public Library Schafly Brch

Download the Pamphlet: How to Be a Delegate (PDF)