George Wenschhof
The close race for the Democratic Party nomination for President has
brought even more attention to what has always been a heavily
scrutinized election. Even the casual observer now realizes that
delegate counts are the name of the game. In addition to counting
delegates, each campaign will be trying hard to catch media attention
and swing attention and support their way.
Super delegates and delegates awarded proportional by winning
percentages by congressional district and by overall statewide vote
will continue to be written about until one of the candidates reaches
the magical 2025 number and secures the nomination of the party.
The existence of Super delegates in particular have come under fire as
voters question why their vote should be marginalized by these
delegates.Today, RealClearPolitics,com
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/democratic_delegate_count.html
has the following delegate count and I see Maryland still has 4
delegates to be awarded.
Obama -Total: 1289, 1133 - Pledged, 156 - Super
Clinton - Total: 1237, 995 - Pledged, 242 - Super
The latest story surrounding super delegates is Rep. John Lewis, who
is a super delegate, and a well known long time civil rights activist
and leader had switched his vote from Clinton to Obama. The initial
report indicated that he was changing his vote and then it was
reported his office had issued a statement that contradicted the
earlier report.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/14/update-lewis-switches-vote-from-clinton-to-obama/
Stay tuned to the whole super delegate mess for until a nominee is
declared this will continue to capture the attention of the voters.
Another recent flap between the campaigns were accusations being
exchanged as to who had ties to Exelon, a nuclear energy firm. David
Axelrod, a senior advisor to the Obama campaign had previously worked
for the firm as a consultant. This news was soon countered with the
fact that Mark Penn a chief strategist with the Clinton campaign had
recently had his firm provide some consulting work for Exelon.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/14/mark-penn-tied-to-controv_n_86722.html
The Clinton campaign, once the front runner and now the underdog is
still using the mantra that she is ready to lead from day one. They
also continue their theme of producing results, not slogans or
promises. There is a debate next Thursday in Austin, Texas which will
follow the results from Tuesday's voting in Wisconsin and Hawaii and
precede the March 4th primaries with Ohio and Texas. The delegates up
for grabs on March 4th is 370.
I'll provide more information about the time of the debate and who is
the sponsor as we get closer to the date. It will be interesting to
watch the tone of this debate. To date, we have seen the candidates
attack and we have seen them play nice. One thing is certain, Clinton
needs to come across well to check the momentum swing to Obama.
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