Superdelegates stand pat for now

Published 10:53 pm Tuesday, February 12, 2008

OLYMPIA — Washington’s Democratic superdelegates are under heavy pressure from backers of caucus winner Barack Obama to support the Illinois senator at the national nominating convention.

But so far, only three of the state’s 17 automatic delegates have endorsed Obama — and none of the other party and elected leaders, including the state’s two senators, show signs of dropping their loyalty to Hillary Clinton or shifting from neutral status.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, a superdelegate for Obama, says she isn’t applying any pressure. But both Obama and Clinton and their campaigns are lobbying. Obama’s campaign stops just short of insisting that because Obama carried Washington’s caucuses, he should get the superdelegates.

“On Saturday, Barack Obama scored a decisive victory in Washington by winning all across the state and among all types of voters, demonstrating his broad-based appeal and the grass-roots enthusiasm for his movement for change,” Obama spokeswoman Amy Brundage said Tuesday.

“We believe that the superdelegates should reflect the will of the people and their judgment about who is best positioned to lead the party to victory in November.”

In the overall race for the nomination after Tuesday’s primaries and the newly released Washington state results, Obama had 1,212, including superdelegates. Clinton had 1,191. It takes 2,025 delegates for nomination.

Obama told a Seattle news conference on Friday that he still hopes to win the nomination without the superdelegates having to play the deciding role.

The 796 superdelegates nationally account for nearly 20 percent of the delegates to the national convention in Denver. As of the last Associated Press count, Clinton had a sizable advantage, 243 to Obama’s 156. That advantage was larger than Clinton’s narrow overall delegate lead heading into Tuesday primaries in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

It takes 2,025 delegates for nomination.

The tiny margin has led to speculation that superdelegates could decide the winner, possibly not the front-runner among the regular delegates.

“My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates and the most voters in the country, then it would be problematic for political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters,” Obama said in Seattle.

He said it’s also important for superdelegates to judge who would be the stronger challenger for Republican John McCain in November and who would motivate more new voters. New polls show Obama doing somewhat better than Clinton against McCain.

Clinton, running ahead among superdelegates here and nationally, has resisted the view that superdelegates should follow the lead of their state’s voters. That would require, for example, Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry to shift to her from Obama, since she carried Massachusetts, she says.

In Washington, Obama has only three committed superdelegates: the governor, who endorsed him on Friday; Rep. Adam Smith, his state chairman; and Pat Notter, a member of the Democratic National Committee.

Clinton is backed by King County Executive Ron Sims and Rep. Jay Inslee, two of her state co-chairmen; Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell; and Rep. Norm Dicks, dean of the congressional delegation.

The rest, the majority, remain uncommitted and can go that way to the convention if they choose. They include state Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz; party Vice Chairwoman Eileen Macoll; U.S. Reps. Brian Baird, Rick Larsen and Jim McDermott; former House Speaker Tom Foley; and DNC members Ed Cote of Vancouver, Sharon Mast of Bellevue; and David McDonald of Seattle.

Superdelegates said they’ve been personally contacted by Clinton, Obama and many surrogates for both. They also said their e-mail boxes have been jammed with messages from Obama grass-roots backers demanding that they follow the lead of the state caucus-goers and switch to Obama pronto.

The Seattle Times’ editorial page on Monday urged superdelegates to heed the decisive caucus and the Feb. 19 primary results and consider switching to Obama.

But the governor and others said the superdelegates are free agents. Gregoire said it was such a tough choice for her to choose between Obama and Clinton that, “I’m the last person to tell them what to do.”

Pelz said he is waiting until closer to the convention to take sides, wanting to lead a united party. But he added: “I would hope all the superdelegates will pay close attention to the results of the caucuses, and I know they will. I would also note that the members of Congress and the governor are accountable to the voters.”

The Clinton camp, including the two senators, gave no indication of changing their endorsements Tuesday. And the uncommitted delegates said they’ll stay that way, at least for a while, any outside pressure notwithstanding.

Washington’s Democratic superdelegates

BACKING OBAMA: Gov. Chris Gregoire, Rep. Adam Smith, Democratic National Committee member Pat Notter

BACKING CLINTON: Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Reps. Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee, King County Executive Ron Sims

UNCOMMITTED: Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz; Vice Chairwoman Eileen Macoll; DNC members Ed Cote, Sharon Mast, David McDonald; Reps. Brian Baird, Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott; former House Speaker Tom Foley