Washington Super Delegates

Before the caucus on Saturday, a few big names in Washington State made their endorsements. Gregoire for Obama. Dicks, Cantwell, and Murray for Clinton. Not only are these big names, but they are also "superdelegates."

Yesterday, Jamie over at Thrice All American argues for Washington superdelegates to reflect the overwhelming caucus victory for Obama in this state. Which got me interested in just who exactly these superdelegates are. Fortunately, I found a list of all Democratic superdelegates here on Wikipedia. Would you believe Washington has 17 (out of a few hundred).

And a lot of them are names you've probably never heard, but that's probably because you don't know all the names of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Out of the 17, those currently for Obama (according to the list) are Gregoire, Adam Smith, and someone named Pat Notter who lives on the east side of the mountains (she's DNC).

For Clinton, we have Cantwell, Murray, and Dicks. From the list that leaves 11 uncommitted (assuming that the Wikipedia list is correct).

Those uncommitted superdelegates are Ron Sims, Brian Baird, Jay Inslee, Jim McDermott, Rick Larsen, Dwight Pelz, Tom Foley, Ed Cote, Eileen Mascoll, Sharon Mast, and David McDonald. (UPDATE: Foley, Sims, and Inslee endorsed Clinton. Thanks, Jamie.)

Let's say that the superdelegates were going to go by the percentages with which Obama and Clinton split the state caucuses. In that case, a full 11 would be for Obama and Clinton would get 6 "superdelegates."

Of course, neither the Obama supporters or the Clinton supporters probably want delegates to divide up evenly like that.

But I still think it's pretty interesting too look at the superdelegates and what they will do. That said, this all may become a moot point if Obama keeps racking up victories. Virginia was just called for him by the networks ... that was the state Clinton had a lot of hope to pull something out this round. It's even the site of her national campaign headquarters.