Mr. O'Malley got help from the Clintons during his 2006 gubernatorial run, with former President Bill Clinton headlining a major fundraiser in Montgomery County during the late stages of that campaign. As for Ms. Mikulski, as the first woman elected to the Senate in her own right, it would be difficult to imagine her casting her lot with anyone other than Mrs. Clinton.
A third member of this group of nine is Glen Middleton, one of the state's most powerful labor leaders and among the state's most politically influential African-Americans. His support derives in part from the fact that he is president of Council 67 of AFSCME, which has endorsed Mrs. Clinton.
Taken together, the commonality is loyalty - political loyalty (Mr. O'Malley), collegial loyalty (Ms. Mikulski) and organizational loyalty (Mr. Middleton).
Then, by contrast, there is Susan Turnbull. A longtime Democratic activist from Montgomery County, Mrs. Turnbull is a superdelegate by virtue of her position as vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. (Disclosure: She and I have been friends for many years.) Her loyalties this cycle thus operate on a different level, because party bylaws demand that she essentially remain a neutral referee.
She will therefore commit to nobody, and hopes she will not be forced to vote at the Democratic National Convention to break a stalemate. "The best thing for our party is that prior to the convention, the person who has the most superdelegates and the person who has won the most delegates is the same candidate," she says.
One can only imagine the uproar to follow if that is not the case.
Thomas F. Schaller teaches political science at UMBC. His column appears on alternate Wednesdays in The Sun. His e-mail is schaller67@gmail.com.
