MADISON - None of the five remaining
undecided superdelegates from Wisconsin committed to supporting
Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday.
The focus on undecided superdelegates,
who can support whoever they want regardless of how the state votes,
sharpened after Obama's North Carolina win on Tuesday moved him
closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.
The eventual nominee needs the
support of superdelegates to win.
Three of the five Wisconsin
superdelegates who are undecided — U.S. Sens. Russ Feingold and
Herb Kohl and University of Wisconsin-Madison student Awais Khaleel
— declined Wednesday to say who they support.
Feingold has said he's
"inclined" to support Obama and voted for him in
Wisconsin's Feb. 19 primary in which the Illinois senator defeated
Clinton 58 percent to 41 percent.
A Feingold staff member and
Democratic National Committee member, Paula Zellner, is another
undecided superdelegate. She has refused to say who she is backing
before Feingold does. She did not immediately return messages
seeking comment Wednesday.
Khaleel, 23, is one of the youngest superdelegates. He got the position by being vice president of
College Democrats of America. He has been working with the group's
president, Lauren Wolfe, to get the candidates to focus on issues
important to young people.
The pair even put together a YouTube
video called "Tell Lauren & Awais How To Cast Their
Superdelegate Votes!" Posted on April 28, it had been viewed
nearly 15,000 times and generated more than 300 comments by
Wednesday morning.
"Guess who might decide the next
leader of the free world? Me," Khaleel says in the
intentionally funny 90-second video.
They urge college students to contact
them about who they should support, saying they are more accessible
than other superdelegates. Wolfe is from Michigan and won't have her
superdelegate vote counted because the state held its primary
outside the time frame set by party rules.
Khaleel said Wednesday that he does
not intend to commit to a candidate until a week or two after the
final primary on June 3.
The other undecided superdelegate,
state Sen. Lena Taylor, did not immediately return a message seeking
comment. Taylor said as recently as Friday that she remained
undecided.
Eleven of Wisconsin's superdelegates
have said who they support. Nine are for Obama and two are for
Clinton.
There was no sign from either of the
Clinton backers that they intended to jump ship.
U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin is sticking
with Clinton, her spokeswoman Jerilyn Goodman said. The other
superdelegate supporting Clinton, Tim Sullivan, did not return
messages seeking comment.