Backroom Primary: Reaching Out to Superdelegates

NPR reports: Sen. Barack Obama received another superdelegate pledge Wednesday, this one from Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal. That brings the overall pledged delegate count to 1,632 for Obama, 1,500 for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Clinton maintains a lead among superdelegates, but it has been narrowing since Feb. 5.

Since neither candidate is expected to win enough pledged delegates to clinch the Democratic Party nomination, the votes of the superdelegates — elected officials and party activists who are not bound to any candidate by primary vote — are crucial.

There are polls and surveys to measure almost everything, but not the anxiety level of Democratic leaders who fear that every day their bitter primary battle drags on it weakens the eventual nominee in a general election that should be theirs to lose. But superdelegate Debra Kozikowski of Massachusetts says she needs the race to go on longer to help her make up her mind.

"We have a tough pragmatic fighter on the one side," she says. "We have an inspirational, dedicated leader on the other. And who's to say which one is the best candidate? For somebody like me, it has to be the preponderance of the evidence of who has the best opportunity to win in November and that evidence has yet to be completed."

	Superdelegate Math	RealClearPolitics	Thu Apr 3	1
	Hillary's Superdelegate Lead Shrinks from 87 to 30	NewsMax	Fri Apr 4	1
	Dean: Superdelegates Can Do What They Want	The L.A. Times	Wed Apr 2	5
	Some Superdelegates More Super Than Rest	Associated Press	Fri Apr 4	12
	Pelosi Says Democratic Race Should Go On	Associated Press	Mon Mar 31	0