Did you know this? Elected vs unelected superdelegates

[thesubstanceofdreams]

Superdelegates come in two basic flavors: democrats elected to national office (representatives, senators and governors), and members of the party ("Distinguished party leaders", DNC superdelegates and just 4 congressional delegates). Obviously, the first group has to answer to their voters, while the second is free to "vote their conscience".

There is a huge disparity in the way each of these blocks is endorsing candidates.

So far, according to politico.com, elected superdelegates are 92-83 for Clinton, essentially a tie (52.5%-47.5%). But unelected ones are for Clinton by an almost two-to-one margin, 154-88.5 (64%-36%).

Certainly, not all elected superdelegates are endorsing based on the vote of their constituency (for example, both senators from WA endorsed Clinton and both senators from MA endorsed Obama). But it seems that this group as a whole is unwilling to go against the popular will, unlike the unelected party insiders.

Number collected from http://www.politico.com/superdelegates/ .

[madfloridian]

1. Dean summed it up nicely in an interview with National Journal.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1846

He feels they will follow the wishes of the voters.

"Dean: They are going to follow the wishes of the voters in their states, and I'll tell you why. They are elected by the voters in their states. Superdelegates are not cigar-smoking people who take corporate jet rides from lobbyists. Superdelegates are elected by the same people who went and elected the other delegates. For example, there are two classes, and one is elected officials -- senators, governors, congressmen. Those people are responsive to their own electorate. If you go and vote for a governor and you work in their campaign and you do all the things that activist Democrats do, you're going to have the ability to call the governor's people and say, look, I really want the governor to vote this way in the primary. That is part of the democratic process."

[thesubstanceofdreams]

2. But there seems to be a big difference depending on WHO elected them

Those elected to national office are about even.
Those elected by the democrats (some of them really weren't, the "Distinguished party leades"), are almost 2-1 for Clinton.

[madfloridian]

3. They may not continue in their support...depending.

Did you realize Dean was far ahead in superdelegates? They started to strip off after Iowa and went with the "electable" one.

They have the option of change.