2008 Inslee Refines his Superdelegate Stance
posted by on February 18 at 12:09 PM
I’m working on a piece about superdelegates right now, and as part of that project my intern, Ryan Jackson, dug up a story from Saturday’s Bainbridge Island Review that I’d missed.
In the story, Washington Rep. Jay Inslee, one of Hillary Clinton’s strongest backers in this state and a co-chair of her national campaign’s task force on energy and the environment, says that while he’s supported Clinton so far, he’s not sure how he’ll cast his vote as a superdelegate at the Democratic convention in Denver this August:
Inslee plans to see how the rest of the campaign unfolds before announcing whom he will support at the August national convention, spokesperson Christine Hanson Clapp said Thursday.“In terms of being a superdelegate, he is expecting things to clear up before August rolls around,” Clapp said. “Hopefully we’ll all be behind one candidate and Jay will support whomever that is 110 percent.”
Why might Inslee be leaving the door open for an eventual vote in favor of Obama?
Inslee’s constituents strongly favored Obama in the caucuses.Results showed Obama picking up 80 percent of the island’s delegates. He claimed 70 percent of delegates in Kitsap County, and four of the six national delegates from Inslee’s 1st Congressional District will be awarded to Obama, according to the Washington State Democrats.
All of which puts Inslee in a position very similar to that of Rep. John Lewis, who last week pioneered the strategy of describing a Clinton endorsement as not necessarily a promise to vote for her at the convention.
Wasn't he also the chair of her failed campaign here in Washington? Way to hedge your bets Jay.
if she is elected - on to DC for Jay, that is the bet for him
talk of Jay as VP as well - he is progressive and telegenic, would be a decent choice
@1 Spot on assessment!
Classic pandering.
Classic.
Reality Check
Er... that should be "Jay will support whoever that is."
The misuse of "whomever" by local papers (including, egregiously, The Stranger) drives me to drink.
I approve of Inslee's views. The superdelegates are there to smooth things over and build party unity. This can only happen at the end of the process. Whether they move for Clinton or Obama doesn't matter to me, only that they do it in a way that preserves the party and establishes a candidate with a good chance of prevailing in November.
CCSea @4 beat me to it. A spokesperson should know better.
As I said before, superdelegates aren't stupid.
Perhaps it should be noted that there's no news here. "Superdelegates" (and their equivalents) have supported the inevitable winner, almost without exception, since the beginning of time ... as have pledged delegates once released by their preferred candidates.
That's all Inslee said he would do, surprising nobody who knows anything about the nominating process.
I've said it before: always use "whoever," and forget that "whomever" exists unless you know you can use it properly. And likely you can't.
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