[img_assist|nid=748|title=U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)|desc=Getty Images Photo|link=none|url=undefined|align=right|width=180|height=243]State House News Service reports that state House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi (D-North End) will vote for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) rather than the presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama at next week's Democratic National Committee Convention.

DiMasi's vote will come almost a year-to-the-day he endorsed Clinton last summer. The Speaker assisted her important Feb. 5 primary win over Obama, 56 to 41 percent -- one of the largest victories of her campaign at that point.

Obama and Clinton, who fought a drawn-out battle for their party's nomination long after the campaign left Massachusetts, announced last week that her name would also be part of the roll call in Denver.

In the statement, Obama said he was “convinced that honoring Senator Clinton’s historic campaign in this way will help us celebrate this defining moment in our history and bring the party together in a strong united fashion.”

The decision immediately raised the question of how many votes Clinton would receive during the first roll call, and which prominent supporters would make the symbolic gesture.

“I was a Hillary Clinton supporter and she took New Hampshire and Massachusetts, where I worked for her,” DiMasi told State House News Service.

The New York Times reports that "associates" of Sen. Clinton say that she herself will cast her ballot for Sen. Obama. U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) another supporter of the former First Lady, estimated to Politico that "as many as half of the Democrats in the House" would vote for Clinton.