"Superdelegates" and reminding them who they serve

KUDO 1080, Alaska's Liberal radio station, has a thread on their blog, Precinct 1080 about Alaska's Superdelegates.

The "Superdelegates" were established to give voice to the Democratic Party's "historical perspective." These delegates suppposedly bring that perspective in making their choices for party nominee. However, should that perspective carry more weight than the voice of the people?

I was one of as many as 3,000 newly-registered Democrats who voted in the Alaska Caucus on Super Tuesday. Alaska Democrats voted for Obama 75% to Clinton's 25%. So, the majority of those of us who are "new" Democrats voted for Obama. Paraphrasing my KUDO friend Shannyn Moore, we die-hard Independents finally joined the Democratic Party because we saw it as "a vehicle of change, not historical perspective."

In 1984 Gary Hart was only slightly behind Walter Mondale. Probably as a result of the "sex scandel" revelations about Hart (which did make him a non-viable candidate), Mondale received almost all of the Superdelegates and won the nomination.

Here we have the possibility of a potentially worse situation. As of now, Obama is on a roll and actually has a small lead in the number of popular delegates. If predictions are accurate, this will persist at least through to the March 4th decisions in Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

So what would happen to the party if Obama has a decent lead in popular delegates by the Convention but still loses because of the tag-team-Clintons' skillful wooing of Superdelegates? I personally think all hell would break loose - that it's wrong for the "chosen" to usurp the party members and nominate a candidate that is not the people's choice. I believe that many other Democrats feel the same way.

It turns out that Alaska has four Superdelegates and that one of them has already vocalized her support to CNN for Clinton. This means that, in order to parallel the will of the Democratic party members in Alaska, the other three "Supers" should go for Obama.

On the Alaska Democratic Party website the party leaders are listed. They can be emailed by clicking on their names. These are the four who are Superdelegates:

Blake Johnson - First Vice Chair
Kenai, (907) 776-5212

John Davies - National Committee Man
Fairbanks, (907) 474-4927

Cindy Spanyers - National Committee Woman
Juneau, (907) 790-3931

Patti Higgins - State Chair (pledged herself to Clinton before the Caucus)
Anchorage, (907) 360-2561

HERE is a great website that provides ALL of the names of the Superdelegates across the nation, including who they have publicly pledged their support to (if anyone).

I truly hope that Democrats all over the country find out who their Superdelegates are and remind them who they represent.