Several superdelegates from Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio are bucking the will of the people by withholding endorsements from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, staying silent even though she overwhelmingly won their districts.
The silence from dozens of superdelegates who have good reason to back Mrs. Clinton amplifies the near impossibility of her winning the Democratic presidential nod.
The schedules of Mrs. Clinton and her rival Sen. Barack Obama revealed their priorities: She campaigned in three states while he spent yesterday wooing superdelegates among Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
While Mr. Obama received a rock-star welcome, signed autographs and posed for photos, Mrs. Clinton told voters that they must ignore pundits who have counted her out more times than she can count.
“I’m running to be president of all 50 states. I think we ought to keep this going so the people of West Virginia’s voices are heard,” she said in Charleston.
Since her slim win in Indiana and big loss in North Carolina, Mrs. Clinton has picked up just two superdelegates — elected officials and party activists who will decide the party nominee — and those were members of Congress from those states who fulfilled promises to back the winner of their congressional districts.
Others aren’t following that rationale, and phones are ringing off the hook on Capitol Hill.
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“The congressman is firmly undecided, and that’s the last comment we’ll be making,” a frazzled-sounding receptionist said when answering Rep. Howard L. Berman’s phone yesterday. Mr. Berman’s district in Southern California went for Mrs. Clinton.
Freshman Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — whose district in Arizona favored Mrs. Clinton by 3,000 votes on Super Tuesday — also won’t be announcing her preference any time soon.
“She is remaining uncommitted for the foreseeable future,” spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. “The congresswoman has said in the past that she believes the voters should have the ultimate say.”
Mrs. Clinton won all four of the Ohio congressional districts belonging to undecided members, but none was budging yesterday. She strongly carried two-time presidential hopeful Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich’s district, but he has been a Clinton critic and allowed his supporters to join with Mr. Obama for the Iowa caucuses. His office said yesterday that he was still making up his mind.
The same goes for Rep. Charlie Wilson, a freshman whose district went 70 percent for Mrs. Clinton.
Mr. Obama, meanwhile, is slowly gaining superdelegate support. He now has 264 superdelegates on his side, nearly tied with Mrs. Clinton’s figure.
Rep. Brad Miller’s district in North Carolina was split between Mrs. Clinton and the senator from Illinois but said yesterday that he was backing Mr. Obama because “he has shown great vision, strength and resilience during a very tough campaign against a worthy opponent.”
Mr. Obama also won over Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington, a state that Mr. Obama won in February.
Mrs. Clinton is making her case that superdelegates should choose her over Mr. Obama because she has the better chance of winning the presidency. She presents herself as someone with the ability to win over white, blue-collar workers and notes her wins in swing states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The Obama campaign wrote a letter to superdelegates saying they are free to use their own criteria for deciding whom to support.
“If you look at the numbers, during a period where the Clinton campaign has been making an increasingly strident pitch on electability, it is clear their argument is failing miserably with superdelegates,” wrote campaign manager David Plouffe, noting that Mr. Obama has netted 107 superdelegates to Mrs. Clinton’s 21 since February.
Mr. Obama yesterday brushed aside questions about whether Mrs. Clinton should end her bid, calling her “no pushover.”
“I want to respect her, and her desire to continue in these coming contests. And as soon as I know I’m the nominee, then I’m going to start making overtures to her, as well as everybody else, to figure out how we can bring this party together,” he said on NBC’s “Nightly News.”
Of the more than 200 undeclared superdelegates, just 23 are from places that have yet to vote: West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota and Montana.
Mr. Obama worked on dazzling the rest yesterday when undecided Rep. Robert A. Brady of Pennsylvania urged him to visit the House floor. He exchanged hugs — and gave autographs — before privately huddling with undecideds from the centrist Blue Dog caucus.
Rep. Christopher Carney’s Pennsylvania district solidly backed Mrs. Clinton, with whom he met Wednesday, but he has not come out for either Democrat. In a statement, he lauded the high turnout in Tuesday’s primaries, noting: “Leadership is about temperament, and this is the ideal time to test the candidates’ ability under pressure.”
Interviews with superdelegates or their aides revealed many who were hesitant to step forward, preferring to let the six remaining contests play out and some privately hoping Mrs. Clinton would step aside before they were tasked with tipping the balance for either candidate.
Rep. Peter J. Visclosky has “no self-imposed deadline” to lift his position of “undecided,” said spokesman Jacob Ritvo. Mr. Obama won the congressman’s Northwestern Indiana district by 17,000 votes.
Rep. Harry E. Mitchell, whose suburban Phoenix district voted for Mr. Obama despite Mrs. Clinton’s statewide win, also has “no plans” to commit soon, a spokesman said yesterday.
But interested Democrats who want a resolution to the race are pressuring more superdelegates to publicly declare their preferences.
The Obama campaign’s national director of students, Meredith Segal, wrote a letter to college-age superdelegates yesterday declaring, “His path to the nomination is clear, and his victory is imminent.
“It is time for the leaders of the College Democrats of America and the Young Democrats of America who are superdelegates to certify the will of young voters across the country by uniting behind Barack Obama,” she wrote.
C. Richard Cranwell, chairman of the Virginia Democratic Party, declined to reveal his preference, but predicted that he wouldn’t have to.
“By the end of this month, we will know who our nominee is going to be, after about the 21st or 22nd of May,” Mr. Cranwell said.
That’s right after the May 20 primaries in Kentucky and Oregon, contests that the Obama camp thinks will clinch for him the majority of pledged delegates.
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