Clinton, Obama whip for ‘’08

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have intensified their fight for congressional endorsements, setting up whip operations in which their surrogates are cajoling undecided lawmakers to get off the fence.

Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) has set up a similar operation headed by former House Minority Whip David Bonior (D-Mich.), who said he would meet half a dozen lawmakers today to seek their endorsements.

{mosads}Members of Congress are important to presidential candidates because they can raise money and mobilize voters in early primary states. But they will also serve as super delegates at next year’s presidential nominating convention in Denver. Since their convention votes are not tied to the results of next year’s primaries, lawmakers constitute a voting bloc that
unlike primary voters can be locked down early.

Clinton’s supporters in the House began organizing their whip operation in March, as the first fundraising quarter of the 2008 election cycle drew to a close. Her whips switched on the afterburners last month after Obama stunned political observers by revealing he had raised $25.8 million in the first quarter.  

At the beginning of March, Clinton’s House supporters held their first meeting to plot strategy, and have held regular conference calls ever since. Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) heads the Clinton whip team, and has tasked Reps. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) with building support among lawmakers from various geographical regions.

Their activity reached a crescendo Wednesday when Clinton’s Congressional Leadership Committee held a reception for lawmakers supporting their candidate at the Georgetown home of Democratic super donors Elizabeth and Smith Bagley.

“We’ve got a pretty sophisticated operation,” said Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a Clinton whip, who said he attended his first
meeting at the end of March. “Various members have been assigned colleagues based on personal friendships or service on the same committees. We meet every week to review the list. There’s a lot of enthusiasm.”

Clinton has secured support from 35 members of Congress, including 11 delegates from outside her home state, according to a campaign tally. Her partisans emphasize the diversity of their congressional support, which includes Out of Iraq Caucus member Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), and Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-Ohio).

Obama’s House whip operation lags Clinton’s by a few weeks, but members say it has picked up momentum in recent weeks. Several lawmakers supporting Obama said they received whip lists from the campaign in the past two and a half weeks.

Rep. Phil Hare (D-Ill.) said Obama’s campaign gave him a list of 10 colleagues to work on.

“Every member is a delegate to the convention and that’s important,” said Hare, who says his tactic is to avoid lobbying for Obama on the House floor but buttonholes lawmakers quickly in the adjoining Speaker’s lobby. “I get them out here or in the Cloakroom. A couple of them are on the same committee as me.”

Hare said his task is made easier by the fact Obama campaigned last year in the districts of eight of the lawmakers on his list. He said five of the lawmakers he’s been assigned have agreed to endorse Obama in the past two weeks. Two or three will reveal their allegiance in coming weeks while others wait until later in the year.

Obama has public endorsements from 19 lawmakers so far. One supporter said that 11 of these come from outside Illinois, the same number as Clinton has secured from outside New York.  

Another Obama lawmaker said their whipping would accelerate soon; “We have a whip operation that will be picking up steam in next couple weeks. We are stepping up our outreach efforts on Capitol Hill and with super delegates.”

The source said Obama plans to hold small meetings with groups of lawmakers over the next two months.

Edwards does not appear to have an organized whip operation made up of House lawmakers. But he does have is the proven whipping skills of Bonior.

“We have our whip operations, but it’s not in the House,” said Bonior, Edwards’s chief liaison to congressional Democrats. He said he still has a good feel for the Democratic Caucus: “I used to be the former whip.”

Bonior also said Edwards has the endorsements of Reps. David Obey (D) and James Oberstar (D), the respective deans of the Democratic delegations from Wisconsin and Minnesota. He said Edwards’s 15 declared supporters in the House are reaching out to colleagues.

At the Democratic convention next summer, 4,987 delegates will select the party’s nominee. Of these, 850 delegates will be unpledged super delegates, meaning they can choose the nominee regardless of primary results.

While they are unlikely to determine the winner, but it is probably less unlikely than in previous years because of the radical realignment of next year’s primary calendar. More than 20 states are expected to hold their primaries on Feb. 5, 2008, making it more difficult for any candidate to emerge as the inevitable nominee.

“The convention has really atrophied as a decision-making body,” said Ross K. Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University. “But this is a year in which no sane person would predict how this will play out. This is probably the time for people who favor fanciful and improbable scenarios to get their bids in and say super delegates could make a difference. Anyone would be a fool to challenge them.”