Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has called for Hillary Clinton to drop out of the race to avoid damaging the party.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama.
These senators are superdelegates but their votes hardly matter.
Also, endorsements rarely sway voters.
The significance of this is that Leahy
has been in the Senate more than a quarter of a century. He understands politics
like few others. He and Casey know Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama well. The most
important thing to note is that heavyweights like Leahy do not say things that
will antagonize presidential candidats lightly.
He knows that the Clintons
have excellent memories and this slight will not be forgotten. Leahy is
privy to all the inside baseball going on and is clearly convinced that Obama
will be the nominee and wants to get on his good side by helping him now. Casey is
a newcomer to the Senate but held several statewide offices in Pennsylvania, whose
primary is next.
There is one new primary poll today, in Pennsylvania. Clinton is holding onto the
state solidly, as she has for weeks. How this will translate into delegates is another matter.
Check back Monday for that story.
Here are the delegate totals from various news sources rounded to integers
(Democrats Abroad has 22 delegates, each with 1/2 vote).
The sources differ because in most caucus states, no delegates to the national conventions have
been chosen yet, just delegates to the district, county, or state convention so there is some
guesswork involved. Furthermore, some of the unpledged delegates are elected at state conventions in May or June.
Finally, the PLEOs (Party Leaders and Elected Officials) sometimes waver and may tell different reporters
slightly different stories that they interpret differently.
Welcome
FAQs
Donations
Icons for bloggers
Previous elections
Electoral coll. graph
Cartogram
Animated maps
Data galore
All Senate races
Hot House races
Political websites
Articles and books
Political humor