What we have on our hands is a potential back room effort to use undemocratic "superdelegates" to anoint a Democratic presidential nominee - with many superdelegates potentially using their power in defiance of how their states and communities voted.

As a good example of what I'm talking about, consider what's going on here in Colorado. On February 5th, voters overwhelmingly voted for Barack Obama in the caucuses. However, as Channel 2 News reports in the story attached at bottom, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) has already endorsed Hillary Clinton and is refusing to say whether she will cast her superdelegate convention vote with Colorado voters, or for Hillary Clinton. DeGette refused to comment for Channel 2's story.

The question is whether politicians and party officials with superdelegate votes will be loyal to a fellow politician or loyal to small-d democracy. The history of the superdelegates, which I trace in my upcoming book The Uprising, is one that designed the superdelegates to thwart democracy. In order to stop that this year, I have previously written that we need to start pressuring superdelegates to do what the Maine Democratic Party chairman did: pledge their superdelegate vote to whomever their voters support in primaries and caucuses.

This story about superdelegates led the Channel 2 news tonight. I was interviewed echoing what I have written before: namely, that the only way for "superdelegates" to really respect democracy is for them to follow the lead of the Maine Democratic Party chairman and simply vote the way their states' voters voted. You can bet this kind of story will be reported throughout the country - with the same kinds of issues popping up lots of places.

http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-delegates-caucuses-democrats,0,5691695.story

Some Dems wonder if Clinton-backer will be loyal to politics or principle

By Eli Stokols, News2

February 9, 2008

DENVER (KWGN) — Much has been made of the record turnout of Democratic voters in the presidential primaries and caucuses that have been held thus far. And many of those voters are growing increasingly concerned about a scenario in which their votes don't really matter.

"It really takes the power back out of our hands," said Margit Henderson, who was a precinct captain for Barack Obama on Super Tuesday and is now focusing on the superdelegates, the party elites who account for 20 percent of the total delegates available and, as a whole, 40 percent of the total needed to secure the party's nomination.

"The electoral participation is amazing," Henderson said. "And to have elected officials moving in a direction that isn't consistent with their constituents is disconcerting."

As both Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, separated by fewer than 100 delegates, begin to lobby superdelegates for their support, Henderson, and many other Colorado Democrats, are intensely focused on one superdelagate in particular: Rep. Diana DeGette.

"She's endorsed Hillary Clinton and her state went overwhelmingly for Barack Obama," said David Sirota, a Denver-based columnist and author. "I think that puts her, and people like her, in a very difficult position."

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