As Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaign in Pennsylvania and the few remaining primary states, they are trying to woo average voters, but perhaps more importantly, win the support of the more than 240 uncommitted “superdelegates” whose votes will determine the Democratic nominee.
One of the moderators of Wednesday night’s debate in Philadelphia, ABC News anchorman Charlie Gibson, noted the historic importance of the superdelegates, telling Clinton and Obama at the end of the event, “I know you’ve been talking to them all along.”
Created in 1980, the superdelegates have never played a deciding role in choosing the Democratic nominee. But because neither candidate will be able to reach the threshold of 2,025 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, the race will be decided by this group of nearly 800 elected lawmakers and Democratic Party officials.
Clinton, Obama and their top supporters are courting these newly minted deciders, contacting them every few days asthey try to get their vote.
“This is like someone running for senior class president at a medium-sized high school and having about $25 million to spend on the campaign,” said Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat who is uncommitted and hotly pursued by both camps.
In Pennsylvania, six of the 26 superdelegates have yet to commit to either candidate. Five are members of Congress.
Rep. Chaka Fattah, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has endorsed Obama, said the campaign has a three-tier approach aimed at winning the popular vote, the pledged delegates who will be awarded according to the April 22 primary results, and of course, the six undecided superdelegates.
“The Obama campaign is working very hard to have a trifecta,” Fattah said.
Obama trails Clinton in Pennsylvania superdelegates, 15 to 5, and is six points behind in state polls, according to the political Web site Real
ClearPolitics.
But Obama is steadily chipping away at Clinton’s estimated overall lead of less than 30 superdelegates, and he has picked up the support of five new superdelegates in the past week, though none of them is among the coveted six remaining undecided Pennsylvania superdelegates.
“Throughout the debate, I think they had their eye on that ball,” said Democratic political consultant Peter Fenn.
Fenn said the candidates, who have focused heavily on the economy as they campaign in the Keystone State, have used the issue of electability as a sortof separate stump speech for the superdelegates. Clinton in particular has made this argument, Fenn said, as she would likely need the superdelegates to vote against a probable pledged delegate victory by Obama when the primaries end in June.
“She has to convince folks she is the most electable Democrat come November, and if you look at the polls now, that is not the case,” Fenn said. “That is what she knows she has to have superdelegates very clear on by the summer.”
