 "Photo: SEIU International — http://www.flickr.com/photos/seiu/374537751")
As the race for the Democratic nomination draws to a close, superdelegates are expected to play a decisive role in determining who will be the final Democratic candidate, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill). With five more primaries left, superdelegates may not have as significant a role in the nomination process as first expected.
Joseph Pika, a political science professor, said superdelegates are officially recognized by the Democratic National Committee as unpledged delegates. The superdelegate system pertains to delegates who are not required to commit their support to a particular Democratic presidential candidate before the Democratic National Convention in August.
Joe Sheeran, communications director for the Delaware Democratic Party, said unpledged delegates are delegates who are not locked in to their decision based upon their state's proportion of the vote.
Each state, as well as Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands, sends a certain number of delegates to the convention. A presidential candidate must win a majority of the delegates' votes to secure the nomination, Pika said. He said 20 percent of all delegates at the convention are unpledged.
Sheeran said Delaware has 23 delegates -- 15 pledged and eight unpledged. Pledged delegates are committed to a candidate and are selected every four years based upon the primaries and caucuses in each state. Unpledged, or superdelegates, are typically members of Congress, party leaders and elected officials who are selected before the political season begins. They do not have to commit to a candidate until the actual convention.
Pika said many superdelegates have committed early as a way to strengthen their candidate or show which candidate will most likely be the winner. Other superdelegates plan on committing after the primary process, with few waiting until the actual convention takes place.
"It's a bad idea to wait until the convention because the candidate won't be able to start campaigning in June, July and August," he said. "Many delegates feel pressured to choose a winner now."
Four of Delaware's superdelegates have already chosen a candidate.
Karen Valentine, the national committeewoman of the Delaware Democratic Party, said she committed to Clinton after her first choice, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del), withdrew from the race.
"I made the decision to commit at the time because I felt very strongly that I needed to be involved in the process," Valentine said. "I wanted to do it before we actually voted here because I did not want my choice to be decided by the voters after the fact. Not that I don't listen to the voters - but I wanted to say, 'This is how I feel and this is where I stand.' "
She said the choice to make an early commitment to a candidate is a personal preference that enables a superdelegate to vote independently from the results of a state's primary. On the other hand, some superdelegates do not endorse a candidate until the close of the primaries.
Senator Biden's press secretary, Alexander Snyder-Mackler, said, Biden, another superdelegate, will not make an endorsement until after the convention.
Senator Obama is currently leading the Democratic primaries with the popular vote and the most number of committed delegates, according to The Associated Press.
Pika said the superdelegate system is often viewed as an undemocratic process because a delegate's vote is not required to correspond with the outcome of the primary vote. However, he said he believes the process is not as undemocratic as many people think because the opinions of the superdelegates can provide a new perspective on a presidential candidate.
"Professional politicians and elected officials bring a different lens to looking at candidates," he said.
Pika said the process of superdelegates was created by Democrats and first used during the 1984 election. It enables elected officials to have a louder voice in selecting and reviewing their party's candidates, a system which was nearly silent during elections in the '70s.
"It was a way to try to repair some of the excesses they felt had been created in the '70s," he said, referring to the DNC's broadening of the popular vote. "Opening the nomination to broader participation had reduced opportunities for elected officials to evaluate candidates. So, it was intended to offset the extremes of public participation."
Sheeran said in past primary elections there has been a clear candidate with a "surmountable lead." As other candidates typically drop out of the race, superdelegates tend to flock toward the leading candidate.
"This time we have a very odd situation. The [primary election] has never gone much past Super Tuesday," he said.
However, Sheeran said he does not think the role of the superdelegates will be any different from the past.
"There is still a couple of states left," he said. "Once those states are finished up with their primaries I think you're going have a clear nominee and the role of the superdelegates won't be as significant."
However, Pika said superdelegates still could make a difference at the end of the primary season.
"They'll play a decisive role," he said. "Neither Democratic candidate has been able to win enough committed delegates to win the nomination so far."
Allie Scheer, president of College Democrats, said she is not concerned by the role of the superdelegates in the election process.
"Usually the closer the race is, the larger the role the superdelegates have in selecting the nominee," Scheer said. "This race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been really close, but lately the superdelegates have been trending towards the candidate who has won the majority of pledged delegates, which is Obama. If they were to overturn the will of the majority of Democratic primary voters around the country, then I'd be concerned."
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