Published: May 21, 2008 08:52 am            

Clinton win turns up heat on superdelegates

LOUISVILLE — Kentucky voters overwhelmingly picked Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as their choice for the Democratic presidential nomination, but it wasn’t immediately clear if Gov. Steve Beshear and two other uncommitted superdelegates will follow their lead.

So far, Beshear and Kentucky Democratic Party leaders Jennifer Moore and Nathan Smith haven’t tipped their hands on who they will back for the nomination, even though a record number of Kentucky voters handed Clinton a lopsided victory over Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday.

That victory, by more than a 2-to-1 margin, is expected to intensify pressure on the three superdelegates to endorse the New York senator. They could choose to ignore the state’s popular vote and back Obama. Or they could bide their time in hopes the issue resolves itself.

Beshear said he will not rush to a decision.

“I’m going to continue to look at how things develop,” he said. “As a superdelegate, I feel it’s my job to try to figure out what’s the best thing to do for the state and the country in terms of deciding on a candidate as our nominee. The fortunate thing is we’ve got two great candidates running for the Democratic nomination. So, no matter what I ultimately decide, I think the Democratic Party will be well represented.”

Moore, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, and Smith, the vice chairman, said they also will continue to monitor political developments before committing to a candidate. For both, the outcome of Kentucky’s election will weigh heavily in the decision.

“I’m going to look at the results, and then, in the next few days, make a decision,” Moore said. “We want to weigh all the factors, but, to me, the most important factor is the way Kentucky votes.”

Clinton carried 118 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, some by gigantic margins. Obama narrowly won the other two.

Secretary of State Trey Grayson said a record 32 percent of the state’s registered voters turned out for the primary.

Both Clinton and Obama have been courting Kentucky’s superdelegates — elected officials and party activists who are free to support whomever they choose at the party’s national convention in August, regardless of the popular vote.

Three of the state’s superdelegates — Terry McBrayer, JoEtta Wickliffe and Moretta Bosley, who are Democratic National Committee members — have endorsed Clinton. Two others — U.S. Reps. John Yarmuth and Ben Chandler — have committed to Obama.

To get the nomination, Clinton would need to win over nearly all of the remaining uncommitted superdelegates across the country, said University of Louisville political scientist Laurie Rhodebeck.

“Mathematically, I don’t think it’s impossible at this point, but the chances are so slim that it’s nearly impossible,” Rhodebeck said.

Kentucky political strategist Dea Riley, who headed the campaigns for two of the state’s sitting Supreme Court justices, said Beshear, Moore and Smith can’t ignore Tuesday’s popular vote.

“If they just blatantly ignore the popular vote, I would expect a rebellion,” Riley said. “Their political futures belong to Kentucky, not national politics. That weighs heavily on them.”

The issue is clear-cut in the mind of Daviess County tobacco worker Cory Ward, who voted Tuesday afternoon at a school in Owensboro.

“Whoever the people chose would be who I would hope who the superdelegates would consider,” Ward said. “Instead of their own ideas, it would be the people’s ideas.”

To do otherwise, Judy McCrackin said, would be undemocratic.

“The people ought to speak,” said the 59-year-old nurse who voted for Clinton. “That’s what voting and what a democracy is.”

Most voters made up their minds long before election day, according to results from exit polls conducted for The Associated Press and television networks.

Only about 10 percent of voters decided who to vote for in the last three days, and the vast majority decided more than a month ago, according to exit polls.

The exit polls showed the economy weighed heavily on the minds of Kentucky voters. Given a choice of three issues, two-thirds of voters said the economy was the most important issue facing the country.

Nearly nine in 10 Kentucky voters said the current economic slowdown had affected them and their families.

In the state’s impoverished coalfields, Clinton routed Obama, picking up more than 80 percent of the votes cast in counties with the highest unemployment rates. Nearly 93 percent of the Democratic voters in Magoffin County, where the unemployment rate exceeds 10 percent, favored Clinton.

Other counties with double-digit jobless rates also added to Clinton’s win. More than 82 percent of the Democratic voters in Jackson County, which reported the state’s worst unemployment in March, chose Clinton.

Obama carried Fayette and Jefferson counties, home to the state’s two largest cities, Lexington and Louisville, reflecting a political strength among urban voters that he’s shown in other state primaries.

        

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