WASHINGTON - These are dizzying times for superdelegate Nancy Larson.
First came the call from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who gave her phone number. Then came a call asking Larson to hold for former President Bill Clinton. Finally, on Super Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton called.
"They were all so charming," said Larson, one of five remaining uncommitted Minnesota superdelegates -- DFL party insiders who could play an outsized role in deciding whether Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama will win the Democratic nomination for president.
Sometimes derided as "party bosses," these longtime activists are getting more attention than ever this week as the delegate race heads for possible stalemate.
Since the Democratic Party's superdelegates are not pledged and can vote for whomever they like, they are now in the middle of a raging intra-party fight about their allegiances.
The two campaigns are eyeing this special class of party leaders and elected officials who make up nearly one-fifth of the 4,090 delegates going to the Democratic National Convention in August.
Altogether, there will be 16 superdelegates from Minnesota, including former Vice President Walter Mondale, who is backing Clinton, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who remains neutral. The Obama campaign, which has snagged most of Minnesota's Democratic U.S. House members -- all superdelegates -- is now locked in a tussle to win over the few remaining holdouts.
One of those is Larson, a lobbyist for rural communities and superdelegate by virtue of her status as a Democratic National Committee (DNC) member. So far, she says, the most persuasive of her suitors has been Chelsea Clinton, who made the case that her mom would make the best president. "I almost committed to her," Larson said. "But then I decided 'This isn't good. I have to back off. ...' I could go either way. I go back and forth."
Searching for advantage
In state-by-state contests, Obama leads Clinton by 134 pledged delegates. His lead shrinks to 55 if the count includes superdelegates who have made endorsements. In a primary race this close, both sides are searching for every advantage.
Obama supporters, though not Obama personally, have been pressing Larson and other uncommitted Minnesota superdelegates to follow the lead of the state party's Feb. 5 caucus-goers, who favored the Illinois senator by 67 percent to 32 percent.
Besides Larson, their juiciest target is Klobuchar, one of only three Democratic women in the Senate who have not endorsed Clinton. She has vowed to remain uncommitted until "the time is right."
That frustrates some Obama backers, who believe that Klobuchar, a statewide public office holder, should feel duty-bound to fall in line with the Democrat who won Minnesota.
"A vote for Hillary Clinton would be a rejection of her constituents' vote," said DFL activist Charles Friedman, a Minneapolis employment lawyer who supports Obama.
Clinton supporters argue that to be fair, they should get a full third of the state's 16 superdelegates. So far, they have only three: Mondale, and DNC members Jackie Stevenson and Rick Stafford.
Stafford, a longtime party official and cochair of Clinton's Minnesota campaign, said that Klobuchar has a lot of statewide interests to balance, including the one-third of Democrats who support Clinton.
No upside
The results of Minnesota's Super Tuesday caucuses awarded 48 of the state's 72 pledged delegates to Obama and 24 to Clinton. Counting the nine superdelegates who have declared support for one side or the other, Obama currently leads by 54-27.
In addition to the five superdelegates who remain uncommitted, two more will be elected at the state convention in June.
Among the holdouts, Klobuchar and Larson appear to be the most likely to be persuaded. The other three are U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson, DFL Party chair Brian Melendez and vice chair Donna Cassutt.
None is likely to get involved unless the nomination remains deadlocked at the convention in Denver.
"There's really no upside to doing it too early," said Melendez, noting that any effort by him and Cassutt to pick a candidate would only anger the other side's supporters, with whom they may still have to work. "Depending on how you do it, it can start a civil war within the party."
Peterson has shown no inclination to side with either Obama or Clinton. A spokeswoman, Allison Myhre, said that as chairman of the Agriculture Committee, "his focus right now is on the farm bill."
For some rank-and-file party members, the less heard from the superdelegates the better. Some consider the entire system a distortion of the democratic process, intended, as it is, to maintain the influence of party leaders who have chosen candidates.
"It's extremely upsetting," said Adam Hennings, president of Students for Barack Obama at the University of Minnesota. "That's not what I would expect from my party. My party is supposed to be the one of inclusion and every vote counts."
Political analysts note that the superdelegate system was a 1980s reaction to the party reforms of the previous decade, which many blame for the 1972 landslide defeat of South Dakota Sen. George McGovern, a product of the party's liberal grass-roots activist base.
Perhaps the chief beneficiary of the superdelegate system was Mondale, who enjoyed broad support among party leaders in a tight presidential primary contest with Colorado Sen. Gary Hart. That was in 1984, the year Mondale went on to lose in a landslide to Republican Ronald Reagan.
Like many of the Minnesota superdelegates, Larson says she would rather see the primary contest decided by the pledged delegates who are won in primaries and caucuses. But that may be unlikely, given the looming battle over the Florida and Michigan delegations, which were disqualified in a scheduling fight within the Democratic Party.
While that issue is decided, some superdelegates are content to let the next few primaries -- including Wisconsin's on Tuesday -- run their course. Said Larson: "I think it's important for some of us to take a deep breath and wait."
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753