Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com
Published - Thursday, May 08, 2008
No sign of undecided superdelegates picking Obama or Clinton
MADISON, Wis. — None of the five remaining undecided superdelegates from Wisconsin committed to supporting Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday.
The focus on undecided superdelegates, who can support whoever they want regardless of how the state votes, sharpened after Obama’s North Carolina win on Tuesday moved him closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
The eventual nominee needs the support of superdelegates to win.
Three of the five Wisconsin superdelegates who are undecided — U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl and University of Wisconsin-Madison student Awais Khaleel — declined Wednesday to say who they support.
Feingold has said he’s “inclined” to support Obama and voted for him in Wisconsin’s Feb. 19 primary in which the Illinois senator defeated Clinton 58 percent to 41 percent.
A Feingold staff member and Democratic National Committee member, Paula Zellner, is another undecided superdelegate. She has refused to say who she is backing before Feingold does. She did not immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Khaleel, 23, is one of the youngest superdelegates. He got the position by being vice president of College Democrats of America. He has been working with the group’s president, Lauren Wolfe, to get the candidates to focus on issues important to young people.
The pair even put together a YouTube video called “Tell Lauren & Awais How To Cast Their Superdelegate Votes!” Posted on April 28, it had been viewed nearly 15,000 times and generated more than 300 comments by Wednesday morning.
“Guess who might decide the next leader of the free world? Me,” Khaleel says in the intentionally funny 90-second video.
They urge college students to contact them about who they should support, saying they are more accessible than other superdelegates. Wolfe is from Michigan and won’t have her superdelegate vote counted because the state held its primary outside the time frame set by party rules.
Khaleel said Wednesday that he does not intend to commit to a candidate until a week or two after the final primary on June 3.
The other undecided superdelegate, state Sen. Lena Taylor, did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Taylor said as recently as Friday that she remained undecided.
Eleven of Wisconsin’s superdelegates have said who they support. Nine are for Obama and two are for Clinton.
There was no sign from either of the Clinton backers that they intended to jump ship.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin is sticking with Clinton, her spokeswoman Jerilyn Goodman said. The other superdelegate supporting Clinton, Tim Sullivan, did not return messages seeking comment.
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