In many instances, one superdelegate’s vote is equal to the influence of an entire congressional district. For example, Obama won Connecticut’s 3rd district with 52 percent of the vote but captured only one delegate from the victory. Ten-point wins in Wisconsin’s 5th and 6th districts gave Obama only two more delegates than Clinton.
Several Clinton supporters, such as Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Watson said they were entirely committed to voting for Clinton at the convention unless she drops out of the race.
Pascrell and Meeks said they were “100 percent” for Clinton through the convention, and Cleaver said he would vote for her unless he died first. Primary election results for individual congressional districts in New York have not been made available yet, but Obama is expected to have won easily Meeks’s largely African-American district. He carried Cleaver’s district with 57 percent of the vote.
Other Clinton supporters have shown less resolve.
When asked whether he might vote for Obama at a brokered convention, Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) said: “At some point I may have to discuss that with Sen. Clinton. Historically we have not gone to this type of convention, and I hope we don’t.”
Obama won Boswell’s district with 37 percent of the vote in a race in which former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) competed strongly.
Boswell said there is growing sentiment among Democrats to abolish the superdelegate system.
“I’m not comfortable with superdelegates,” said Boswell, who still considers himself a Clinton supporter. “My thought is I don’t like it much. There’s some talk among some of us that we’ll suggest at the convention that it’s not a good thing.”
Boswell said any effort to reform the Democratic nominating rules would likely happen at the convention.
Boswell is one of several lawmakers who endorsed Clinton but now feels pressure from constituents to support Obama because he won their districts. There are at least 23 House Democrats, and likely more, who split with the majority of their district over the party’s nominee. The districts of at least 14 Clinton supporters voted for Obama. At least nine pro-Obama Democrats saw their districts vote for Clinton.
Rep. Ron Kind (D), who had long remained neutral, felt compelled to go along with the majority of his Democratic constituents in the wake of last week’s Wisconsin primary. After Obama won his district with 57 percent of the vote, Kind pledged his allegiance.
“I’m not a big fan of the superdelegate process,” said Kind. “It does seem very anti-democratic, the elite powerbrokers operating behind the scenes to potentially nominate our candidate. We risk alienating a lot of the voters who participated.”
Kind sent a letter to Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean earlier this month urging him to support reforming the nominating process. Specifically, Kind would like to end the role of superdelegates.
“A lot of my colleagues are starting to do what I did, which is follow the vote of their district,” said Kind.
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