Top Dem trio seek nominee deal by July 1

Democratic leaders in Congress, fearing a messy fight at the party convention in August, are coalescing around the idea that uncommitted superdelegates should announce which candidate they support early this summer.

Their calls for the party to select a nominee in the next three months have put pressure on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) to back down from her pledge to battle Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) all the way to the Denver convention.

{mosads}But some Clinton supporters are pushing back. They argue that superdelegates should not be forced to follow their leaders’ timeline.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who has been in discussions with Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean over how to avoid a convention fight, said that superdelegates should reveal their favored candidate by the beginning of July or earlier.

Taking a similar line, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday she “would hope a resolution could be reached before July,” adding that Democrats need to be ready for the November general election.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested the protracted intra-party battle could be solved if party officials meet informally to reach consensus on who should be the nominee.

“In my early days, my younger days, I was a political leader in Prince George’s County,” he said during a meeting Tuesday with reporters. “We had what was called a breakfast club. People sat around a table just like this. We rarely ever voted. We did have, however, significant discussions in which we ultimately came to consensus.”

By calling for a quick resolution of the stalled primary, Democratic leaders have offered support to Dean, who last week called for superdelegates to make a decision between Clinton and Obama by July 1.

Immediately after his proposal became public, Clinton dismissed the notion that she would drop out of the race if she still had a chance to overturn Obama’s delegate lead at the convention.

Obama has nearly 150 more delegates than Clinton, but he is not expected to win enough support to capture the nomination before the convention. The stalemate could be resolved, however, if the party’s uncommitted superdelegates weigh in on the race in the coming weeks. Dean estimates that more than 300 of the party’s 794 superdelegates remain uncommitted.

Specifically, Democratic strategists are concerned that a floor fight at the convention could create a schism between two of their most important constituencies: women and African-Americans.

“We have two candidates who are the personifications of major constituencies,” said Hoyer. “Mr. Obama, obviously, of African-Americans, Hillary Clinton of women.”

Clinton supporters, who argue that Obama’s campaign has lost momentum since winning a string of primaries in February, are resisting calls to wrap up the race quickly.

“Superdelegates should be afforded the same courtesy as regular delegates,” said Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), a Clinton supporter. “They shouldn’t have to make up their mind according to the timetable of Howard Dean.”

But Obama supporters take the opposite view.

“I don’t see a reason for superdelegates to hold out until the convention,” said Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), an Obama backer.

Obama himself has helped spur Democratic leaders into action by suggesting that selecting a nominee in late August could harm the party in the general election. He recently told reporters that it would be “extremely helpful” for the nominee to have “two or three months” to prepare for the general election.

Clinton has fueled Democrats’ anxieties with her own statements.

“I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong,” Clinton told The Washington Post Saturday. “I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don’t resolve it, we’ll resolve it at the convention — that’s what credentials committees are for.”

But Democratic leaders have distanced themselves from a proposal by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) that superdelegates hold a formal meeting before the convention to select the nominee.

“I’m not sure I’m supportive of that idea,” said Hoyer, who said consensus is best reached through informal discussions.

“I think [superdelegates] will be talking to one another,” he added later.

Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Byron Dorgan (N.D.) also downplayed Bredesen’s proposal.

Meanwhile, several uncommitted Democratic senators on Tuesday joined their leaders’ call for the nominee to be selected well before officials meet in Denver.

“I think it makes sense it gets resolved as soon as we can,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.). “I think we should work to try to get the result resolved before the convention.”

Sen. Ben Cardin (Md.), another neutral Democrat, said: “I do think we would be better served if we make our decisions by July instead of August.”

Other Democrats are trying to ease growing concerns among colleagues over internecine fighting.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) argued in a press conference Tuesday that Democrats would be well-positioned in November. He pointed to the millions of dollars that Clinton and Obama have raised for their campaigns and the high level of enthusiasm among Democratic voters.

Manu Raju and J. Taylor Rushing contributed to this report.