Chalk up two more Maryland delegates for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Giving up the neutrality they had maintained for months in their party?s presidential race, the chairman and first vice chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party endorsed Obama for president Monday ? even though Gov. Martin O?Malley is co-chairman of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton?s campaign in the state.
“We are responding to the call of the chair of our national party,” said state party Chairman Michael Cryor, who was suggested for his post by O?Malley last year. Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean has asked the party?s superdelegates ? elected officials who might vote for whomever they choose ? to help end the party?s prolonged nomination process.
Cryor said Obama offers the best hope to unite the party and the nation and defeat the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, in the fall. “What is being presented by our Republican challenger frankly frightens me,” said Cryor. McCain represents “a third term for George W. Bush.”
State party First Vice Chair Lauren Dugas Glover said, “I believe Barack Obama is the one to take us in the right direction.”
“I have looked very closely at the numbers” and Obama has “the most delegates and the most popular votes.” Obama won Maryland?s Feb. 12 primary.
In Maryland, there are 11 superdelegates supporting Clinton, seven supporting Obama, and 12 who have yet to make their choices known.
On Saturday, the party central committee, which Cryor and Glover head, finished its process of certifying the convention delegates, so the two said they felt freer to announce their own choices
Cryor said O?Malley understands that they are united in the desire to win in November. “This decision was mine,” Cryor said.
Former Gov. Parris Glendening was added as a superdelegate Saturday, and he had previously announced his support for Obama. His lieutenant governor, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, was added as a superdelegate for Clinton.
Glendening initially had supported New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for the nomination, but when Richardson left the race, Glendening switched to Obama.
“We cannot continue making incremental changes and think we?re solving problems,” Glendening said.
