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So much for that one-person, one-vote malarkey.
Despite the grueling pace and tiring effort, neither Hillary Rodham Clinton nor Barack Obama won or lost Tuesday’s Democratic primaries and caucuses by large enough margins to lock up the nomination. Parts of the race now turn away from voters and instead to party bigwigs.
According to exit polls, voters are not liking the idea that so-called superdelegates, who are not bound by voters’ preferences, could decide the party’s nominee.
Six in 10 voters said superdelegates’ choice should be based on results of the primaries – Clinton and Obama supporters evenly supported that idea, according to exit polls conducted Tuesday for The Associated Press and television networks.
“I said all along that however Dayton and Montgomery County went, that’s how I would use my superdelegate,” Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said Wednesday as she announced her backing of Obama on CNN. “I’m going with how the area went. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
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Although Clinton won 54 percent of the Democratic vote to carry Ohio, Obama took McLin’s western Ohio county 54 percent to Clinton’s 45 percent.
So McLin, a 20-year member of the Democratic National Committee and vice chairwoman of the Ohio Democratic Party, added one more delegate to Obama’s tally. She did not return messages seeking comment.
Based on The Associated Press’ delegate counts Wednesday, neither candidate could win enough voter-decided delegates in the remaining contests before the party meets this summer in Denver. Without public – and unchanging – commitments from those almost 800 party leaders and elected officials, the already 14-month nominating contest could be drawn out through August.
Of Ohio’s 21 superdelegates, Clinton and Obama are tied with four apiece. The remaining 11 remain uncommitted and hotly pursued, while state party chairman Chris Redfern will name two more this spring.
Overall, Clinton now posts 78 delegates from Ohio; Obama, 69.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, one of Ohio’s superdelegates, said he remains uncommitted because he wants the primary process to play out. He also wants to hear what Obama and Clinton say on the campaign trail and make sure their focus remains on trade, jobs and the economy, said press secretary Bethany Lesser.
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who also remains uncommitted and frustrated with both Democrats’ campaigns, said her fellow fence-sitters have more power the longer they hold out. She urged her peers to consider a bloc endorsement that would give them wide sway within the campaign.
“We are holding strong to elevate the economic issues of the heartland; we want very specific proposals to deal with what is happening,” Kaptur said. “We as a delegation are working together.”
It’s unclear how long that coalition will hold. So far, only Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Cleveland has committed to a candidate: Clinton.
Gov. Ted Strickland, another vocal supporter for Clinton, said superdelegates have the obligation to use their judgment: “Why wouldn’t we just get rid of them if we didn’t expect them to exercise their independent judgment? That’s why superdelegates, I guess, were made part of the process.”
Clinton beat Obama by an almost 2-to-1 margin in Rep. Tim Ryan’s blue-collar northeast Ohio district. Ryan, however, remains uncommitted despite heavy lobbying.
“I don’t think my opinion really matters on that because Hillary’s going to go forward and we’re going to have a campaign that looks like it’s going to go into the summer and possibly all the way to the convention,” Ryan said. “Hillary is going to move on so let’s just batten down the hatches and get ready for a few more weeks of campaigning.”
Both Clinton – who won Tuesday’s primaries in Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island – and Vermont- winning Obama plan to work those superdelegates aggressively.
Clinton and her advisers said superdelegates should dig into Obama’s record and pick the most vetted candidate, independent of what voters say.
“We have a responsibility as delegates to that convention … that we try to figure out who will be the strongest candidate to take on John McCain and the Republican attack machine,” said Harold Ickes, a Clinton adviser who managers her delegate wrangling.
“There’s not another shoe in her closet to drop. … Too much is unknown about Senator Obama.”
Obama’s chief strategist said Clinton’s campaign was grasping aimlessly.
“I guess that’s another way of saying the kitchen-sink strategy is still in play,” said David Axelrod, repeating the campaign’s oft-repeated claim Clinton was trying to throw anything and everything at Obama in the hopes of damaging him.
Axelrod, meanwhile, raised the specter of Clinton’s still unreleased tax returns and White House schedules. The campaign has said it’s impossible for voters to assess Clinton’s claims of experience if she refuses to release those records from her time as first lady.
“She’s been a habitual nondiscloser,” he said.
In the overall race for the nomination, Obama had 1,564 delegates, including superdelegates. Clinton had 1,463. It takes 2,025 delegates to secure the Democratic nomination.
On Tuesday, Clinton won at least 187 delegates and Obama won at least 178.
