Tar Heel superdelegates in demand

Michelle Obama has become telephone pals with Charlotte City Council member Susan Burgess. U.S. Rep. Brad Miller of Raleigh can't go to the North Carolina-Clemson basketball game without his cell phone buzzing to find out what he's thinking about the presidential race. CBS, The New York Times, and Fox News keep calling the deputy chairwoman of the state Employment Security Commission to check her political pulse.

Welcome to the latest phase of the Democratic presidential campaign: the frantic courting of a bloc of unpledged Democratic delegates who might decide whether Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton is the party's nominee.

They are the so-called superdelegates. There are 796 across the country, including 17 in North Carolina.

At August's Democratic National Convention in Denver, 80 percent of the delegates will have been elected in primaries and caucuses and will be pledged to one of the candidates. The remaining 20 percent -- mainly members of Congress, governors and members of the party's ruling body, the Democratic National Committee -- will be free agents.

And that's why North Carolina's superdelegates have been bombarded with telephone calls, e-mail messages and face-to-face pleas by Hillary and Bill Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, and dozens of supporters and aides.

"It's absolutely unbelievable," said Carol Peterson, a Buncombe County commissioner and member of the Democratic National Committee. "The phone calls from [the campaigns of] Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have been just daily. In fact, several times a day."

For the first time since Democrats created the superdelegates more than a quarter of a century ago, they could play a decisive role in determining the next Democratic presidential nominee.

"This is the most attention I've ever received," said Muriel Offerman of Cary, who has been on the Democratic National Committee since 1989. Offerman is deputy chairwoman of the state Employment Security Commission.

Superdelegates' origins

The origin of the superdelegates was a Democratic commission, headed by then-North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt in 1982. Worried that liberal party activists and outsiders were taking control, the Hunt commission changed the rules so that 14 percent -- later expanded to 20 percent -- of the delegates would be seasoned party leaders.

Most delegates are chosen in primaries and caucuses and pledged to vote to nominate a particular candidate. But the superdelegates are not chosen by primary or caucus voters. They go to the convention unpledged -- free to vote their choice.

The 796 superdelegates were created to make sure seasoned politicians attended the national Democratic conventions and played a role in a tight nomination fight. The idea is to make sure the Democrats put forth a candidate who is electable, will help other Democratic candidates on the ballot and can work well with other Democrats if elected.

Neither Obama nor Clinton is likely to accrue the 2,025 delegates -- out of a total of 4,049 -- needed to claim their party's nomination before the national convention.

Who's super in N.C.?

In North Carolina, the superdelegates are Gov. Mike Easley, the state's seven Democratic congressmen and the state's nine members of the Democratic National Committee. (Two more superdelegates will be elected at the state Democratic convention in June, giving the state a total of 19.)

Most of the Tar Heel superdelegates supported former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards before he suspended his presidential campaign last month. Many say they see no reason to commit now. Many are elected officials, and by endorsing either Obama or Clinton, they could alienate constituents, supporters or potential backers.