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Education

Uncommitted Superdelegates

By Alyson Klein — June 03, 2008 1 min read
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From contributing blogger Alyson Klein:

Today is finally, finally the last day of the Democratic presidential primary.

After South Dakota and Montana finish voting tonight, there will be no one left to decide the Democratic contest except the party’s superdelegates. There aren’t too many out there who remain uncommitted, just 160 left, according to politico.com. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has 2,074 delegates in total, according to realclearpolitics, while Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has 1,915. The number needed to clinch the nomination is 2,118.

So, it appears to be up to the superdelegates to put the nominee over the top. And a handful of the folks who will make that determination are members of the House Education and Labor Committee or the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

They are: Reps. Jason Altmire of Pennsylvannia, Susan Davis of California, Rush Holt of New Jersey, Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, John Sarbanes of Maryland, and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts.

And in the Senate: Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Tom Harkin of Iowa, and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

I’m betting these folks are probably looking at electability, at which candidate won their state or congressional district, and at which has the highest pledged delegate count after the final primaries today. But, you never know, they could also be looking at education policy ...