They have been a part of the process for some time, but they have never been vital to the process until now.
They are superdelegates and an uncommitted one who lives in Jefferson City has become popular, very popular.
"I have been barraged, almost daily, with e-mails, voice-mail messages," Medley tells the Missourinet.
Those calls come from the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns. They are desperate to collect as many commitments from superdelegates as they can long before Democrats gather in August for their national convention in Denver. Superdelegates are national elective officials or party members elected to national posts, such as Medley. They vote for whomever they want at the Democratic National Convention.
Missouri Democrats elected Medley four years ago to serve on the Democratic National Committee, making her a superdelegate. At the time of her election, Medley figured it simply meant attending meetings two times a year. She didn’t dream of the position she would be in in 2008.
"It didn’t dawn on me that I was a superdelegate until we got into this process and began to talk about it," Medley said.
Everybody in politics is talking about it now. The race between Obama and Clinton is extremely close. Superdelegates could decide it. Obama has 1,602 delegates from the state primaries and caucuses. Clinton has 1,497. That gap of 105 votes tightens with the count of committed superdelegates. Clinton leads Obama in that category by 37, narrowing Obama’s lead to 68. More than 300 superdelegates remain uncommitted.
Medley had backed John Edwards. When Edwards dropped out of the race, she became uncommitted. Both campaigns keep calling, but Medley says she will follow the statement on superdelegates issued by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
"He just confirmed what I believe that these people (superdelegates) are responsible for making an individual decision about what is best for the Democratic Party and what is best for our country," Medley said.
Download/listen Brent Martin reports (1:20 MP3)
