Iowa Democratic Party Chair Scott Brennan will endorse Barack Obama for president today. The endorsement leaves Senator Tom Harkin as Iowa's only remaining uncommitted superdelegate.
Two weeks ago, Brennan told Iowa Independent, "I agree with Senator Harkin at this point, why not let the contest play out," and said it was possible he may not endorse until the nominee was apparent.
In addition to his own convention vote, Brennan will name one "add-on" delegate, who will be officially unpledged but is almost certain to be an Obama supporter. That person is subject to ratification by the state party convention June 14, but that's highly likely. Supporters of caucus winner Obama are expected to control more than half the convention. Combined with the forces of John Edwards, who endorsed Obama last week, that figure jumps to about 70 percent.
Obama now has seven of Iowa's 11 superdelegates. In addition to Brennan, those are:
Hillary Clinton has backing from three (using the Clinton campaign's term) "automatic" delegates:
Boswell's Clinton support is a new campaign issue, as 3rd Congressional District primary challenger Ed Fallon is urging Boswell to switch his support to Obama.
Obama is scheduled to speak in Des Moines tonight. The campaign is not calling the event a "claim victory" speech, though many observers are interpreting it as such.
No comments:
Post a Comment