WASHINGTON – Seeing a good possibility that the Democratic presidential nomination will not be settled in the primaries and caucuses, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama are lavishing attention on a group that might hold the balance of power: elected officials and party leaders who could decide the outcome at the convention.
There are 796 of them, and if neither Obama nor Clinton emerges from the primary season with the 2,025 delegates necessary to secure the nomination, they would in essence serve as tiebreakers. That is a result that both sides see as increasingly likely.
Known as superdelegates because they are free to cast their votes at the convention as they see fit, they are the object of an intensifying and high-stakes charm offensive by the candidates and their supporters.
“We have all been bombarded with e-mails from everybody and their mamas,” said Donna Brazile, a senior member of the Democratic National Committee.
Obama and Clinton are setting aside hours each week to call superdelegates, and their campaigns have set up boiler rooms to pursue likely targets. The Clinton campaign has established a system, overseen by one of the party's most seasoned operators, Harold Ickes, to have superdelegates contacted by carefully chosen friends and local supporters, as well as by big-name figures such as Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state. For particularly tough sells, the campaign has former President Bill Clinton or Chelsea Clinton make the call.
Obama has enlisted Tom Daschle, the popular former Senate majority leader, as well as Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the party's 2004 presidential nominee.
The superdelegates include all Democratic governors and members of Congress, as well as officials and other prominent members of the party. In interviews, some said they were grappling with how to use their power if it comes into play, especially if their judgment does not match the will of a majority of voters.
Should they simply ratify the decision by regular delegates and vote for the candidate who is ahead in June, no matter how small the lead? Are they obligated to follow the vote of their constituents in primaries or caucuses? Or should they simply follow their conscience and vote for whoever they think is the best nominee?
Superdelegates, created in 1982, were intended to restore some of the power over the nomination process to party insiders, keeping a lid on the zeal of party activists. About 15 percent to 20 percent of the delegates at Democratic conventions are superdelegates.
In the close race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, superdelegates overwhelmingly supported Walter Mondale, helping to secure his defeat of Gary Hart. This year, the competition is more intense, and the superdelegates' support more evenly divided. Obama, talking to reporters in Seattle on Friday, said he believed superdelegates should follow the will of the voters.
“My strong belief is that if we end up with the most states and the most pledged delegates from the most voters in the country, that it would be problematic for the political insiders to overturn the judgment of the voters,” Obama said.
Clinton's advisers said they were making a case that she is the most electable of the two candidates, appealing to what is presumably the pragmatic edge of this politically attuned audience. Asked how Clinton believed superdelegates should make their decision, her communications director, Howard Wolfson, said, “It should be whoever they think would be the best president.”
Democrats, including party leaders, said they were concerned about a summerlong fight if the primary voting ends without a clear winner.
“It is going to be an enormous train wreck unless by June 3 a candidate has a majority,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who is supporting Clinton. “I don't think we want to go back to those wheeling-dealing, smoke-filled, back-room days.”
2008 VOTE: PRESIDENT