Barack Obama’s loss Tuesday in West Virginia did little to hurt his campaign, supporters said. (Photo by Rick Bowmer/AP)
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JOSHUA LYNSEN
Friday, May 16, 2008
Emboldened by her West Virginia victory, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s supporters are encouraging her to stay in the presidential race.
“I do believe she should stay in,” said Mirian Saez, a lesbian and Democratic superdelegate. “She represents half of the voting Democrats in this nation and she owes it to us to stay in and be strong and bring it home for us.”
But even after her 41-point win Tuesday, Clinton still trails Sen. Barack Obama.
According to CNN tallies, Obama had 1,600 pledged delegates Wednesday to Clinton’s 1,444. Including superdelegates, Obama had 1,883 delegates to Clinton’s 1,717.
Democratic Party rules require a candidate to secure 2,025 delegates to win the nomination outright. About 190 pledged delegates remain to be won and 240 superdelegates are uncommitted.
Ken Sherrill, a City University of New York political science professor who is gay, said the few delegates Clinton won Tuesday failed to “give her as much of a kick as she needed” to catch Obama.
“That’s nickel and dime,” he said. “That doesn’t make a dent in his lead.”
Some of Clinton’s supporters agreed the numbers position Obama as the contest’s frontrunner.
“I think if you took a snapshot, you’d have to say he’s ahead,” said Jeff Soref, a longtime gay Democratic activist.
They said the marathon is not finished, though, until the final primary ballots are cast June 3 in Montana and South Dakota.
“Listen, why should we stop now?” Saez said. “Why shouldn’t every state get a say in this?”
Sherrill said Democrats must be careful, though, to avoid artificially prolonging the process and risk angering the voters they’ll need in November.
“It’s cause for concern in that you don’t want to reach the Denver convention with the two sides at each other’s throats,” he said. “Scheduling the convention so late and starting the primaries so early, there’s a recipe for disaster in that regard, and it makes it harder to heal the wounds of the primary.”
Exit polls from recent primary states Indiana and North Carolina showed about 33 percent of Clinton supporters there would vote for presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain if Obama takes the Democratic nomination.
But Peter Rosenstein, a Washington political activist who is on Clinton’s gay steering committee, said such sentiments are likely to change.
“I think all these polls will change once we have the nominee,” he said. “I really believe that both supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will take a look at John McCain and realize that John McCain represents so many of the things that they actually want changed.”
Soref also noted that neither Clinton nor Obama has indicated they’re worried about a party rift.
“Obama himself doesn’t seem to be concerned about that,” he said. “So I think if he’s not concerned about it and her campaign isn’t concerned about it, then I think we have to let the process play out.”
Soref, who’s been active in politics for “close to 50 years,” said he doesn’t expect the ongoing contest will devolve into the divided Democratic contests of 1968 or 1972, when fights lasted to the convention and yielded candidates who lost to their Republican opponents.
“I don’t think it’s anywhere near that level of anger or bitterness or personal animosity,” he said. “I think this is well within the norm and I have no concerns about unity.”
Saez agreed. She said Democrats involved in the primary process are enthusiastic about their candidate of choice, but ultimately will coalesce around the party’s nominee.
“Right now, we’re just passionate about our candidate and it’s hard to imagine that either one wouldn’t be there,” she said. “But we’ll get through that. We are a party that can unite. And when the time is right, that will happen. And it will happen in a way that’s respectful of both sides.”
And that time, Rosenstein said this week, could be fast approaching.
“I think Hillary Clinton will basically move on through June 3, at which point if Barack Obama has enough delegates to be the nominee of the party, Hillary Clinton will be very gracious, and will be an active and wholehearted supporter of Barack Obama,” he said. “And should something change between now and then, and should Hillary be the nominee, Obama has said the same about her.”
Joshua Lynsen can be reached at jlynsen@washblade.com.
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