At the outset of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, many of the party’s “superdelegates” (party grandees, including current and former officeholders, party officials, etc, who have the ability to swing the nomination at the convention if they think the popular vote has selected an “unelectable” candidate) publicly pledged for Hillary Clinton, but Sanders supporters have held out hope that they would switch sides when it became apparent that Bernie Sanders had a better chance of winning the general election than Hillary Clinton did.
Now, a trickle of superdelegates are publicly declaring for Sanders. The latest is New Hampshire Democratic Party vice chairwoman and state senator Martha Fuller Clark, who cites Sanders’ popular support among the party’s rank-and-file as her reason for changing. She is one of three superdelegates who switched this week, and she calls on other unpledged superdelegates to do the same.
“In the primaries and caucuses held so far, Senator Sanders has won about 45% of the pledged delegates, yet has pledges from only about 6% of the “super delegates.” No wonder Sanders voters are so frustrated with the party,” Monahan said in a statement. “Party leaders need to acknowledge and embrace Senator Sanders and his supporters. That is why today I am pledging my super delegate vote to Senator Sanders. I am encouraging all still unpledged super delegates to support Senator Sanders as well. We need new energetic people in the Democratic Party to spread our effective message.”
Sanders picks up more superdelegates
[Daniel Strauss/Politico]
(Image: NH Senator Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), Keith McCrea, CC-BY-SA)
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(via Naked Capitalism)