Decision day looms this week for undeclared superdelegates from Maryland and other states, whose fence-straddling could end soon and help close out the protracted Democratic selection process.
Final presidential primaries will be held tomorrow in South Dakota and Montana, and pressure is building for remaining superdelegates to announce their choice of a candidate.
Many are expected do so within hours or days, effectively delivering the Democratic nomination to Sen. Barack Obama. In Maryland, that means that several high-ranking political officials, including Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, could finally make their intentions known.
"I think some people are" on the verge of declaring their intentions, said Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, the House majority leader from Southern Maryland. "I think there is a good probability that Mrs. Clinton may be making up her mind as well."
After votes are counted tomorrow and all pledged delegates - those awarded through primaries and caucuses - have been allocated, Obama will fall short of the number needed for the nomination. But he'll be close, within about two dozen.
Party leaders and political observers expect the gap to close quickly this week once superdelegates who support the Illinois senator, but who have withheld announcements at the campaign's behest, come forward.
"The short answer is 'yes.' They have a bank, and they are ready to pull the trigger," said Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Michael E. Cryor, an Obama superdelegate who coordinated the timing of his announcement with the campaign last month.
Superdelegates are the elected Democrats and party officials who are free to vote for whomever they want at the party convention in Denver. Of Maryland's 27 superdelegates, nine have not declared for a candidate. Four of the nine are members of Congress: Cardin, Hoyer and Reps. John P. Sarbanes and Chris Van Hollen. Others are Democratic National Committee members.
Top Democrats want to begin healing the fissures between the supporters of Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton that were on display over the weekend at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's rules and bylaws committee. The committee agreed to seat all the members of the Florida and Michigan delegations but gave them only a half-vote each as punishment for holding primaries earlier than party rules allowed. Some Clinton supporters left the meeting chanting, "Den-ver, Den-ver," signaling their intention to carry the fight over delegates to the national convention in late August.
