Walz endorses Obama's White House bid

by: Joe Bodell

Wed Feb 06, 2008 at 16:45:00 PM CST

In a release, Walz later said "Last night at the Democratic caucuses, the voters of southern Minnesota overwhelmingly supported Senator Barack Obama and his hopeful vision for positive change.  As a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention, I will honor their decision and support Senator Obama."

The pre-final numbers from Walz's district indicate that Obama (D-IL) won 62% of the DFL vote -- not as high as Obama's win margin statewide, but still a convincing win.  In terms of pledged delegates, it now appears Obama will receive 48 from Minnesota, while Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will receive 24.

However, Walz is one of the many superdelegates who did not endorse a candidate before yesterday's Super Tuesday's many primary and caucus contests.  Superdelegates -- DNC members, members of Congress, Senators, Governors, and a select few others -- are automatically credentialed to vote in the presidential nominating contest at the Democratic National Convention, and are unbound by the restrictions of delegate apportionments in their home states.  Recent speculation has focused on the remaining superdelegates as the deciding factor in the contest between senators Obama and Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama now has the support of four Minnesotan representatives in the state's congressional delegation, and speculation now focused on the remaining uncommitted superdelegates.