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Democrats Abroad add to campaigns

By Barry Brown
March 27, 2008

TORONTO — As Democratic presidential hopefuls Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton prepare for the party's nominating convention without a majority of delegates, a half vote cast by a delegate from abroad could prove decisive.

Canada's two superdelegates to the convention, along with 20 other international delegates from Democrats Abroad who will share 11 votes, are excited about the prospect.

Toronto-based superdelegate Toby Condliffe, an Obama supporter, said 6 million to 7 million Americans are living outside the U.S. — 500,000 to 700,000 in Canada — who are eligible to vote in U.S. elections once they are registered.

Until the 1980s, Democrats living abroad "had no delegation at all," he said. Now, they have 22 — eight superdelegates and 14 regular delegates from three global regions — each with half a vote.

Democrats Abroad "wanted more people at the convention so they gave us half a vote each instead of one," Mr. Condliffe said.

Mr. Condliffe, 63, a New York native and former Yale classmate of Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said Mr. Obama reminds him of former President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Obama has the ability to "bring changes in a way that Senator Clinton or the other candidates could not," he said.

Despite some reports that he has been deluged with calls from members of the candidates' teams, Mr. Condliffe said, he has received only a few calls from "junior-level staffers just out of college."

Canada's other superdelegate, Robert Bell, backs Mrs. Clinton because the senator from New York "has the better chance to beat [presumptive Republican candidate] John McCain" of Arizona.

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