I've been searching for the latest superdelegate endorsements, especially the add-ons I've been writing diaries about. I've come across several profiles of superdelegates along the way, and decided to share a bit of what I've found. With the Rules Committee coming up, let's start with Rules committeeman and superdelegate Jaime Gonzalez, Jr. from McAllen, in south Texas. His district went overwhelmingly for Clinton, and he endorsed her as a superdelegate - but not until 2 months after the primary. And:
The Democratic nomination could hinge on 30 party activists who meet Saturday to determine whether to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida. And the sole Texan on the rules committee – a Hillary Rodham Clinton supporter – made clear Tuesday that he'll put the party interests above hers.... "There will be more election cycles. Protecting the integrity of the system is of the most importance."
That's good news. It's exactly what we want from the Rules Committe - a commitment to principles, rather than candidate partisanship.
Gonzalez's father was Zapata county chair for many years. He claims that almost as soon as he learned to raise his arms, his parents were putting political signs in his hands. He's hoping that a compromise is worked out before Saturday between the states and the campaigns, so he won't have to weigh in on this. This is the last year of an eight-year stint on the Rules Committee. Process seems to matter to him, which strikes me as a good thing:
The party stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates to punish them for violating party rules by holding early primaries. The Rules and Bylaws Committee meets Saturday in Washington to hear arguments and decide whether to restore the delegates. Mrs. Clinton wants them fully restored, but Mr. Gonzalez is less than sympathetic. "They knew ahead of time" what would happen if they held January primaries, he said. "They can't just come in and say, 'It ain't fair and therefore let us slide.'"
...
But he said it's easy enough to wall off the superdelegate role from party duty, and no one should assume that anyone on the committee is in the tank for the candidate they've endorsed.
Meanwhile, having declared consistent with his constituency (he represents the Texas Hispanic Caucus), the pressure and lobbying about his superdelegate endorsement hasn't let up - it might even have gotten worse. I'm thinking that's more a sign of the times that of his status of declared or not.
Still Undeclared in Tennessee
Inez Crutchfield, 83, is an undeclared superdelegate from Tennessee. She's been getting dozens of phone messages, pressuring her to declare. But she's not telling! One might guess she'd go for Clinton in the end, being female, and older from Tennessee. But she's also a retired professor, still teaching some health classes at Tennessee State University near Nashville. Education? That leans Obama. But she's not telling, despite having been approached by people from around the country (or because of it?) From an April 30th article:
"It reached a point that I was receiving so many calls, especially from newspapers, that it was almost like harassment," Crutchfield said. "I talked with Gray (Sasser, the Tennessee Democratic Party chairman) and said it's getting to the point that I don't want to answer the telephone."
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In 1963, Crutchfield and two other women became the first African-American members of the Davidson County Democratic Women's Club. When her friend Rilla Woods introduced her as a new member, Crutchfield stood up, and "there was kind of a collective gasp," she recalled, drawing in her breath for effect. But any possibility of racial conflict fizzled when Anna Belle Clement, the sister of then-Gov. Frank Clement, quickly stood up and said, "Isn't this wonderful?"
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Crutchfield said Clinton and Obama are both "very good candidates that I can support," and she's looking forward to seeing history made as the Democrats produce their first black or first female nominee. "I'm female, and I'm African-American," she said. "And I'm proud of both of them."
This one might keep mum until Denver? She hasn't endorsed yet! And will likely be one of the people who helps rebuild party unity for the general election. She also says she hopes the primary contest is put to bed soon.
Undeclared in Ithaca, New York
New York has a lot of superdelegates - 49 all told. One's for Obama, 45 are for Hillary, and only three are undeclared. One of those, former Senate Majority Leader and Distinguished Party Leader George Mitchell isn't really part of the New York political scene. A super-superdelegate, if you will.
Irene Stein, of Ithaca, is one of the other two undeclared. Hillary's stayed overnight at her house; she's never met Obama. And she is not telling who she'll vote for in Denver (yet). It's not because people haven't been weighing in to offer her advice about what to do. Dozens of emails every daily and people on street corners, to high-end pols like Governors Janet Napolitano of Arizona and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts.
Clinton's a powerhouse in New York, obviously. But her county voted for Obama. Which way is she leaning? You think I'd know before the campaigns got a chance to announce it? Fat chance!!
That's a secret Stein, 77, is not ready to reveal, not even to her grandchildren, she said.
"I keep my husband informed of my thought process daily. And he's getting sick of it," she laughed. "In my own mind, if I had had to vote, at various times so far, I would have changed my mind back and forth. I'll go that far."
"I have a mixed family. My daughter and her husband are for Hillary. My son and his wife and his children are for Barack Obama."
"My two older grandchildren refuse to tell me (whom they support). They say, 'When you tell us, we'll tell you.'
She likes both candidates, and says she will decide based on who she thinks has the strongest chances in November, as well as the will of voters locally, statewide and nationally. FWIW, the last undeclared superdelegate in New York State is Ralph Dawson, a lawyer who was Howard Dean's college roommate.
Tom Ryan, Superdelegate
This guy is a hoot. He's not really a superdelegate, but he plays one on the web. And the uninformed have been chasing his support as if he were a real superdelegate:
Looks like some of us Kossacks have been pwned by his "conceptual art" project:
Ryan asked his viewers to help him to make the decision, and thousands responded, while the site's address was passed from one political website to the next. ... "We assumed that people online and in the blog communities would watch the videos and realize that we were doing thinly-veiled satire, but that's not what happened," says Howard Thomas, a 27-year-old Democratic political consultant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the show's creator and executive producer.
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Though he has since pulled ahead, and the Democratic race is largely seen as over, Barack Obama was still behind in the superdelegate count at the time Thomas released the video on YouTube. The official comment sections on Clinton's and Obama's campaign sites are littered with messages urging peers to support their candidate in a web poll featured on the fake Tom Ryan's site. Server logs that Thomas showed Threat Level show that traffic came in droves through other online political forums supporting Clinton, and from the leading liberal weblog DailyKos, and from Facebook messages. By the end of the week, Ryan's site recorded more than 20,000 hits.
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"I'm primarily a writer, and I just wanted to see how far we could take this idea, and it turns out that we could take it pretty far," says Thomas.
How to find real superdelegates
If you want to try and influence a superdelegate, I recommend making sure it's a real one. And don't make 'em feel like they are being harrassed.
I don't know if getting after these people more will help in them making their declarations. If you contact them, I suggest being rational, polite and brief. In the case of the wiki-style resources, it would also be helpful to others to add information. Here's some links to do it:
- The Superdelegate Transparency Project is a wiki-style resource. The entries are uneven. Some have bios, some have contact info, some have virtually nothing. So there's room to help out by adding more information if you know any.
- Huffington Post has a clickable map with background bios of superdelegates. It's a wiki style thing, too, and incomplete (not all the supers are even mentioned), but what's there looks informative and useful, even if actual contact information appears not to be included.
- Democratic Convention Watch is one of the best places to watch the status of the superdelegates. They are prompt in posting things, and well sourced. Best for breaking news, rather than for the over all lists and status of any particular superdelegate - the page layout is not the most user-friendly.
- Project Vote-Smart has lots of information about elected officials, and on candidates for public office - definitely including contact information. And a lot of the supers are elected officials, and some of the rest are candidates for public office (e.g. Jay Nixon, add-on superdelegate in Missouri, is a candidate for Governor of the Show Me State.)
- Green Papers has good delegate summaries, too. Mainly sourced from DemConWatch, but more user friendly layout.
- Politico's superdelegate page isn't updated as promptly as the others (they kept Joe Andrew listed as Maryland long after it was publicized that he was now located in Indiana), but the page layout is very user friendly. Like DemConWatch, its listed endorsements are linked to source.
- SuperVoters has contact information - incomplete, again - for some of the superdelegates, and tools for contacting them in various ways. (I added this late, after getting an e-mail from someone involved with that site.)