The Democratic Party is meeting today to search for a compromise over disputed convention delegates from Florida and Michigan in what could be Hillary Clinton's last chance to gain ground on Barack Obama.
The party's rules committee is intervening in the fight over the two delegations, which are barred from the August nominating convention in a dispute Mrs Clinton has made a rallying cry for her fading nomination bid.
She faces an uphill battle in the 30-member panel to win her demand the delegations be seated at the convention with full voting rights. Mr Obama supports alternatives that would seat fewer delegates.
The meeting is being held in a Washington hotel, and at issue is a rules committee decision last year to strip Michigan and Florida of their delegates because they held nominating contests, both won by Mrs Clinton, earlier than party rules allowed.
She signed a pledge along with the other candidates not to campaign in either state, and Mr Obama took his name off the Michigan ballot. After winning both contests, Mrs Clinton began to press for the results to be recognised.
That would give her a significant boost in the popular vote tally and draw her closer to Mr Obama in the delegate count as she tries to convince superdelegates - party officials who can back any candidate - that she is more electable than Mr Obama in the November race against Republican John McCain.
Mr Obama is close to clinching the nomination, however, and could have the 2,026 delegates he needs on Tuesday, when Montana and South Dakota hold the last contests.
But adding Florida's and Michigan's delegates to the mix would boost the number of delegates needed to win the nomination to 2,210.
Committee members appear to be closing in on a compromise that would seat half of the delegates from each state, or all the delegates with one-half vote each. That would move Mr Obama's magic number to 2,118.