WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton's Pennsylvania victory has done little to simplify the challenge facing Maryland super-delegates who must decide when and how to step in and pick a Democratic nominee.
A recognition is emerging, interviews show, that the super-delegates who have yet to announce a presidential choice will likely wait until the primary season ends in early June.
Those reached yesterday said they would likely declare their support for Clinton or Barack Obama before a July 1 deadline set informally by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
"I think it would be a big mistake to take a divided party into the convention in Denver and have these divisions play out on national television," said Chris Van Hollen, a congressman from Montgomery County who heads the House Democrats' campaign arm.
Neither Clinton nor Obama is expected to gain enough delegates in the nine remaining contests to win the nomination.
As a result, the roughly 240 superdelegates who have yet to announce their choices will get to determine the nominee.
Some of these undeclared superdelegates -- including 12 from Maryland, the second-highest number of any state -- said they didn't pick up enough fresh information in the latest election to push them off the fence.
"When you're trying to find a trend line as to who's the best candidate in November, it was not a conclusive result in Pennsylvania one way or the other," said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin.
Clinton's win, by more than 9 percentage points, was almost an exact copy of her 10-point victory in Ohio in early March.
"For the most part, my thinking has not changed," said state party Chairman Michael Cryor. "They both remain talented and competent candidates. They both performed well, under different circumstances."
Cryor thinks Dean's deadline should be moved up a few weeks: "The sooner, the better," he said.
Superdelegates get an automatic convention vote by virtue of their elective office or party position, and they account for one-fifth of the total number of delegates.
The category was created more than 20 years ago in reaction to growing influence from liberal activists who, more conservative Democrats feared, would drag the party too far to the left and make its nominee unelectable.
Complicated decision
