The contest within the contest

States move to select last superdelegates

Senator Hillary Clinton, shown campaigning in Pittsburgh yesterday, is hoping the superdelegates, who make up about 20 percent of all delegates, will help her overcome Obama's seemingly insurmountable lead among pledged delegates. (CAROLYN KASTER)

WASHINGTON - Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are eager to court the eighth superdelegate from South Dakota, one of the 796 officially uncommitted voters at the Democratic convention whose support could put either of the candidates over the top in the race for the party's presidential nomination.

There's just one problem: The state's last superdelegate spot is empty, and won't be filled until June.

"Any Joe Democrat or Jane Democrat can apply," said Rick Hauffe, the state Democratic party's executive director.

Indeed, while the candidates focus their attention on the remaining 10 primaries, beginning with next month's in Pennsylvania, a parallel process to pick the remaining superdelegates is unfolding that could have an equally important impact on the race.

Unlike the 3,253 pledged delegates elected in primaries and caucuses, superdelegates can vote for whatever candidate they choose. Clinton is hoping that superdelegates, who make up about 20 percent of the overall delegate ranks at the Democratic convention, will ride to her rescue by overturning Obama's seemingly insurmountable lead among pledged delegates.

Democratic governors and congressmen, as well as Democratic National Committee members, are automatically superdelegates. In addition, every state gets between one and five add-on superdelegates, a category that accounts for most of the roughly 80 vacancies on the superdelegate rolls. Add-ons were created in 1988 as part of a party reform package negotiated by presidential contenders Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson, but have never played a significant role in the convention.

"This will be the first time they've really come into play," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who represented Dukakis in the talks.

Rules governing the selection of add-on superdelegates are dauntingly complex and vary from state to state.

In some states, the party chairman picks the add-ons. In others, backers of the candidate who won the state's primary control the selection. In some states, the add-on spot may be used to satisfy DNC affirmative action quotas if not enough men, women, or minorities are elected as delegates during the primary process.

In all, there are 76 add-on spots. So far, only three have been filled, and most will remain vacant until late spring, when state Democratic parties hold their conventions. There are also several other superdelegate vacancies that have opened up because of deaths or resignations.

Massachusetts has two add-on spots, which will be filled May 10 by a vote of the State Democratic Party Committee. Although Clinton won the state primary Feb. 5, the selection rules filed with the national party give the state party control over the selection of the two add-on superdelegates.

In other states, however, the add-ons are linked to the primary winner. For instance, in Vermont, the state's sole add-on superdelegate will be picked by a group of pledged delegates, said Jill Krowinski, the state party's executive director. Obama won the state's primary March 4, meaning his supporters would be in a position to put an Obama backer in the slot, effectively increasing his delegate haul from the state's primary by one vote.

Like many other aspects of the complicated Democratic nomination process, add-on delegates are a vestige of an earlier reform effort. They were originally created in response to Jackson's concerns that the method for selecting DNC members was undemocratic and shut out many of his supporters. Under the 1988 agreement, only states that opened up the process for selecting committee members and met certain criteria were awarded add-ons. Those requirements were quietly dropped in the 1990s, but the add-on category remained in place.

"It started off as a reform," Devine said. "It turned into this process that is creating more and more superdelegates."

Stripped of their original purpose, add-on delegates now provide a built-in advantage to small states, all of which get at least one. For instance, Wyoming gets an extra superdelegate under the rule, while California only gets five, even though its population is 75 times larger than Wyoming's.

Superdelegates themselves were created by a reform commission in 1982 to give party leaders and Democratic stalwarts automatic seats at the convention, a move that backers hoped would strengthen party unity. The add-ons, ironically, are almost by definition not longtime party leaders, since they are added to the rolls just a few months before the convention begins.

In South Dakota, Hauffe said, an add-on superdelegate would be selected by the party's executive committee and would not be linked to the results of the state's June 3 primary. The state's 23-person delegation is required by DNC rules to have at least two Native Americans, three delegates under age 35, one disabled person, and one gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered member. Hauffe said the state might have to use the last spot to satisfy any unmet quotas.

But if the quotas are already filled by then, he said, "it could be anyone."