Thursday, November 26, 2009

Opinion

The Ultimate Democratic Superdelegate-Count

May 02, 2008 10:24 AM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print

If you're a political junkie (as am I) you ought to know about or if not, check out this website. It tracks the superdelegate count in the Democratic presidential nomination race. Since the nomination race is over on the GOP side, it's the only "race" in town for numbers addicts.

It's called 2008 Democratic Convention Watch.

Its most interesting feature is a daily summary of superdelegate additions or changes. Here's the tally from May 1, 2008:

  • Moved DNC Joe Andrew (In.) from Clinton to Obama.
  • Added DNC John Patrick (Texas) for Obama
  • Added NY add-ons Andrew Cuomo (N.Y.)#, Tom DiNapoli (N.Y.)#, Virginia Fields (N.Y.)# and Carmen Arroyo (NY)# for Clinton
  • Added DNC John Olsen (Conn.) for Clinton
  • Added DNC Herman Farrell Jr. (N.Y.) for Clinton. He endorsed a while ago, but DCW has now received a statement from Farrell confirming his endorsement of Clinton.

If you were watching the news on May 1, you'll recall most vividly that Indiana DNC Superdelegate Joe Andrew switched from Clinton to Obama. Of course it's bigger news that a delegate would desert one candidate for the other than newly-minted superdelegates (the New York State Democratic Party just had its convention and unveiled its superdelegate slate) make initial commitments. However, there was another development on the superdelegate front to which mainstream media paid scant attention. The race is on for the so-called Add-On Superdelegates. Four were named from New York State and unsurprisingly they all committed to Sen. Clinton. For the day, then, although Sen. Obama won support from a former Clinton supporter and from one new superdelegate from Texas, Sen. Clinton won five new superdelegates to Obama's two.

Again, it's political minutiae, but fascinating nonetheless.

Tags: Democrats | presidential election 2008 | superdelegates

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About Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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