N.C. Superdelegate backs Clinton today

Wed, May 07, 2008 - 1:41 PM

The campaigns of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are aggressively lobbying uncommitted superdelegates today, cherry picking the most favorable trends from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries to argue for their candidate.

Several superdelegates from North Carolina remain unaligned with either candidate this morning, but at least one, Rep. Heath Shuler, said he's backing Clinton.

The deciding factor: though Obama won the state, his Western North Carolina district voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. Not much of a surprise there. Shuler’s district is populated with the sort of rural, blue-collar workers that Clinton courted so heavily this year.

At least two other uncommitted superdelegates are remaining mum, at least for now.

A spokesman for Rep. Bob Etheridge said he has no plans to endorse today.

Nor does Rep. Brad Miller. In interview, he seemed to suggest that his odds of ultimately backing Obama are higher than they were before Tuesday, given that Obama stretched his delegate lead last night.

“I’m going to let it settle out for a couple of days, look closely at the results in North Carolina and my district, see where the candidates are, and then make a decision on whether I should indicate my support,” he said.

Miller said his district -- with its mix of country, small towns and urban areas -- is generally representative of the state as a whole, which Obama won handily.

An overriding concern driving his decision, he said, was the future health of the party. Supporters of both candidates need to be convinced that the superdelegates selected the nominee fairly, he said.

At the end of the final primary June 3, if Clinton has whittled down Obama’s delegate lead to under 100 or so, Miller said he could envision voting for Clinton, if voters in his district showed a preference for her in last night’s election. But unless Clinton wins overwhelming victories – far out of line with previous Democratic primaries – that’s unlikely to happen.

“In four weeks, if Sen. Obama ends the contest with a 150- or 160-delegate lead and Sen. Clinton ends up as the nominee, Sen. Obama’s supporters will not think that it ended fairly. I think that will be a hard breach to heal,” he said.

--Sean Mussenden