Who Are Virginia's Uncommitted Democratic Superdelegates?

Last week we reported that Virginia is home to a handful of so-called Democratic superdelegates who have yet to commit to a candidate. Yesterday, a large contingent of Obama supporters across the state urged those superdelegates to support the Barack-meister inasmuch as Virginia overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Senator from Illinois.

Here at the Curmudgeon we're more interested in simply getting those superdelegates to commit promptly than who they go for, although given Virginia's primary vote, Obama would be a good choice. (By the way, if you think we've listed any of these superdelegates erroneously--i.e., they have committed to a candidate, let us know!)

So who are these superdelegates?

One is Jim Leaman, who is the president of the Virginia AFL-CIO. For an interesting little piece on Leaman and his views on the race, see "Adventures of Superdelegate" over at New Dominion. One of Leaman's opinions is that there's nothing wrong with spreading out the nomination process through June as "it helps the candidates sharpen their skills for what they’ll need for the general election."

That's fine, but we sure don't see any advantage in stretching things out to the convention in August, so Jim, we'll be looking to you to make up your mind pretty soon.

Another is Alexis Herman, who served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. An African-American, Herman may be quite conflicted in this race, although we would've thought she'd have thrown her support to Hillary some time ago. Here's the deal Alexis: it doesn't get any easier the longer this goes on, so make a decision for the good of everyone involved!

Next up is C. Richard Cranwell. He's a 65-year-old trial lawyer from Roanoke, Virginia who also happens to be the Chairperson of the Virginia Democratic Party. Now it's not unusual for party officials like him to want to appear neutral for a good while, but now that Virginians have voted it's time for him to declare. And frankly, as the official chairman of the state party, we think he ought to go with Obama since his people have spoken loudly and clearly. C'mon Richard, what are you waiting for?

Another undeclared superdelegate is Jerome Wiley-Segovia, born in Paraguay and working now for Casa Blanca, a Latino voting advocacy group. Wiley-Segovia got involved in Howard Dean's 2004 campaign, which helped him win a spot as a Democratic National Committee at-large member when Dean became head of the DNC. For a profile on Wiley-Segovia, click here. He lives in Arlington, but doesn't see himself as a Virginia representative; rather, he sees himself as an advocate for the Hispanic community. So why, we might ask, hasn't he endorsed Hillary? Again, we urge him to make up his mind soon--the rest of the voters deserve to know.

We also have Joe Johnson, an African-American superdelegate from Chantilly, who like Wiley-Segovia is an at-large representative to the DNC. Huffington-Post has suggested that Johnson may be using his status as a superdelegate for personal profit, which, if true, would be the surest fire basis for revamping the superdelegate system. Johnson reportedly is leaning to Hillary Clinton, but if he's an "operator" then all he wants is to make sure he's with the winning team. Something tells us Johnson will hold out as long as he can, which is unfortunate for the rest of us.

Finally, there's Senator Jim Webb. We all know who he is. We're wondering what he's waiting for. His constituents voted 2-1 in favor of Obama, which gives him some pretty easy cover to make a difficult decision between two fellow senators. What may be giving him pause is that Hillary carried most of Southwestern Virginia, which was an important source of strength for Webb in his victory over George Allen. In any event, nothing good will come from further delay Mr. Webb, other than you may really start to piss people off (not that he's afraid to do that), so let's hear from you very soon.

There may be a couple others from Virginia who are still uncommitted--we'll let you know.