Monday, March 10, 2008

Spitzer and the Superdelegate Count

I am guessing that one consequence of Eliot Spitzer's almost certain resignation as governor of New York will be a superdelegate pick-up for Obama. Spitzer has been a superdelegate in Clinton's column, but by resigning, he'll lose his superdelegate slot, which will go to his successor, current Lt. Gov. David Paterson. Paterson has also endorsed Clinton, but reports are that his support is lukewarm. When he endorsed Clinton, he wasn't planning to be a superdelegate, so there's plenty of room for him to say that while he has the greatest respect for Clinton, as a newly hatched superdelegate it's his responsibility to ensure that the winner of both the popular vote and the elected delegate count is the Democratic nominee.

UPDATE: It turns out that Paterson is already a superdelegate by virtue of being a DNC member. That means that unless he resigns his DNC seat, Clinton will lose a superdelegate when he replaces Paterson as Governor.

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