There Really Is No Such thing as a Pledged Delegate

The Associated Press (hate the source but it's the only one I can find) reported in early April that Hillary Clinton was going to start going after the "pledged delegates" (the delegates to the Democratic National Convention chosen based on voter preferences in the primaries and caucuses)

“There is no such thing as a pledged delegate,” Clinton said at a news conference in California, where she has been fundraising.
...
Pledged delegates are “misnomer. The whole point is for delegates, however they are chosen, to really ask themselves who would be the best president and who would be our best nominee against Senator McCain,” Clinton said. “And I think that process goes all the way to the convention.”

Well, it turns out that Senator Clinton was right.

Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, who'd been chosen as a Maryland pledged party leader and elected official delegate for Hillary Clinton, has decided he will vote for Barack Obama instead.

"I cannot in good conscience go to the convention and not support Barack," Johnson said in an interview. "She ran a great campaign, but she fell short of the line."

This is Johnson's second change of heart in the race. He had allowed his name to be listed as a supporter by the Obama campaign in December.

Now, I'm guessing that the 79% of the vote that Obama got in Prince George's County (66% black; granted, he did pretty well in the white DC suburbs as well, and didn't lose a single precinct in the city itself) helped push Executive Johnson to change his vote.

Still, it's pretty ironic that Hillary's "no such thing as a pledged delegate" is hurting her instead of Barack.

But yeah, I don't like this. Obama will win the pledged delegates as pledged delegates. He doesn't need this.

Wavering African-American Superdelegates in Virginia

State Delegates (and convention superdelegates) Lionell Spruill(D-Chesapeake) and Jennifer McClellan(D-Richmond) are wavering in their endorsements of Senator Hillary Clinton for president.

The pressure being put on African American superdelegates who support Clinton, such as McClellan and Spruill, appears to be having an effect.

Raymond H. Boone, editor and publisher of the Richmond Free Press, the city's African American newspaper, said McClellan and Spruill "are opening the door to trouble" in their next election if they do not support Obama.

"I think there is going to be heavy retaliation against both of them," said Boone, whose newspaper endorsed Obama.

McClellan is struggling to balance her constituents' wishes with her support for Clinton, who helped her get started in politics. "I'm being asked to go back on my word," she said.

That's true, you are being asked to go back on your word. But you are also being asked to respect the wishes of the people who, you know, GAVE you your start in politics by electing you to office, in addition to not overruling your state's (and almost certainly your country's) elected delegates.

Per my tallies, Obama won McClellan's district 77.3%-21.9% and Spruill's district 82.4%-17.0%

But in addition, Boone is likely correct. Their primaries for re-election are in mid-2009, less than a year after the Democratic convention. Given the Clinton's campaign's success in turning the black community against them and the fact that a Clinton nomination will require the superdelegates to overturn the pledged delegates, that could certainly spell serious trouble should an ambitious younger Obama supporter in the district take advantage of it.

Current Superdelegate Breakdown

Or, rather, Representatives, Senators and Governors; there are a whole bunch of other superdelegates, of course; I just want to concentrate on this.

My source is the excellent Democratic Convention Watch

While still trailing Senator Clinton by 20 superdelegates overall, he now leads in Governors (14 to 10), Senators (18 to 14) and is just 2 behind in Representatives (Clinton leads 77 to 75); this would, incidentally be a great time for my Representative Rush Holt and 2 others to endorse Obama; it looks like Obama may have narrowly won the Congressional district (although it's not entirely clear as the Division of Elections only gives results by municipality and Trenton, Freehold, Franklin, and I think one other municipality is split).

So, anyway, here's the breakdown by state: both elected official superdelegates and total superdelegates. States where elected officials are ignoring their constituents are italicized; if non-elected supers as a whole are ignoring, it's bolded (if both, it's both bolded and italicized).

I am not counting the rulebreaking states in according with DNC procedure.

Also, some of the other superdelegates are also elected officials, but are superdelegates for reasons other than being a Senator, Representative or Governor

Alabama-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 0 Clinton 3
Alaska-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 1 Clinton 1
American Samoa-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 1
Arizona-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 1
Arkansas-Elected: Clinton 6 Obama 0; Other: Clinton 5 Obama 0
California-Elected: Clinton 18 Obama 7; Other: Clinton 12 Obama 6
Colorado-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 1; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 3
Connecticut-Elected: Obama 4 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 4 Clinton 1
Delaware-Elected: Clinton 1 Obama 0; Other: Clinton 2 Obama 1
Georgia-Elected: Obama 5 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 2
Hawaii-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 1 Obama 0
Idaho-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 0
Illinois-Elected: Obama 13 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 12 Clinton 0
Indiana-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 4 Obama 2
Iowa-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 2 Obama 2
Kansas-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 1
Kentucky-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 0
Louisiana-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 2 Obama 1
Maine-Elected: Clinton 1 Obama 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 0
Maryland-Elected: Clinton 3 Obama 1; Other: Clinton 7 Obama 3
Massachusetts-Elected: Obama 5 Clinton 4; Other: Obama 6 Clinton 5
Minnesota-Elected: Obama 5 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 5 Clinton 3
Mississippi-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 0
Missouri-Elected: Obama 3 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 2
Montana-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 0
Nebraska-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 5 Clinton 0
Nevada-Elected: Clinton 1 Obama 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 1
New Hampshire-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 1
New Jersey-Elected: Clinton 6 Obama 1; Other: Clinton 6 Obama 3
New Mexico-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 6 Obama 1
New York-Elected: Clinton 26 Obama 0; Other: Clinton 13 Obama 1
North Carolina-Elected: Obama 3 Clinton 1 [just now]; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 1
North Dakota-Elected: Obama 3 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 4 Clinton 0
Ohio-Elected: Clinton 4 Obama 0; Other: Obama 5 Clinton 1
Oklahoma-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 1
Oregon-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 2; Other: Obama 0 Clinton 0
Pennsylvania-Elected: Clinton 5 Obama 3; Other: Clinton 10 Obama 2
Puerto Rico-Elected: Obama 1?? Clinton 0; Other: Obama 1 Clinton 1
Rhode Island-Elected: Clinton 2 Obama 1; Other: Clinton 6 Obama 1
South Carolina-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 2
South Dakota-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 4 Clinton 0
Tennessee-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 1; Other: Clinton 4 Obama 2
Texas-Elected: Clinton 6 Obama 5*; Other: Obama 5 Clinton 5
Utah-Elected: Obama 0 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 1
Vermont-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 3 Clinton 1
Virginia-Elected: Obama 4 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 6 Obama 0
Virgin Islands-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 1; Other: Obama 1 Clinton 1
Washington-Elected: Clinton 4 Obama 3; Other: Clinton 2 Obama 1
West Virginia-Elected: Obama 2 Clinton 0; Other: Clinton 3 Obama 2
Wisconsin-Elected: Obama 6 Clinton 1; Other: Obama 4 Clinton 1
Wyoming-Elected: Obama 1 Clinton 0; Other: Obama 2 Clinton 0