Barack Obama picked up two more superdelegates today, as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Maryland Democratic Party announced that they will be supporting Obama.
This represents quite a shift because Party chairman Michael Cryor and Vice chairman Lauren Dugas Glover originally had announced that they planned to stay neutral until the end of the primary season.
However, pressure has been mounting on superdelegates from all sides asking them to make a decision, since it is obvious that the Democratic primary electorate is deadlocked.
Unlike the superdelegates who aren’t elected or Party officials, delegates like Cryor and Glover feel a responsibility to carry out the decision of the electorate in their state. Obama beat Clinton handily in Maryland 60%-35%, so it is no surprise that the state leadership would support Obama.
Although these superdelegates count towards the overall total, we have consistently seen that superdelegate endorsements do very little to influence voters at the polls. There are two separate races going on concurrently in the Democratic Party. There is the battle at the polls, and the fight for the support of superdelegates. Voters influence superdelegates, but the superdelegates have no influence on the behavior of voters.
If the Democratic Party wants to end this primary quickly, they can’t afford to wait for the superdelegates to make their decisions in June. I know that Republicans are praying that this race goes on all summer, but I don’t think that it will. I think it will be done by early to mid June, and Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee.
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