WASHINGTON — Top fundraisers for Sen. Hil lary Rodham Clinton’s campaign upbraided House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday for suggesting that superdelegates should back the candidate with the most pledged delegates and urged her to respect the right of those delegates to back whomever they choose at the end of the primary season.
The criticism represented the latest effort by Clinton’s campaign and its allies to beat back talk that Sen. Barack Obama has amassed enough of a lead in pledged delegates that she will be unable to overtake him and arguments that a continuation of the conflict will hurt the party and help Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.
“You suggested (in a recent television interview) superdelegates have an obligation to support the candidate who leads in the pledged delegate count as of June 3rd, whether that lead be by 500 delegates or 2,” the Clinton backers wrote. “This is an untenable position that runs counter to the party’s intent in establishing superdelegates in 1984.”
Arguing that neither Obama nor Clinton will have amassed the necessary 2,024 delegates needed to win the nomination by time the primary season ends in June, the fundraisers urged Pelosi “to clarify your position on superdelegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the national convention in August.”
