Mitchellville superdelegate discusses major decisions ahead By JANE MCHUGH Staff Writer
What started out to be a profile of a superdelegate - an uncommitted superdelegate, or to use the term the Democratic Party prefers, an "unpledged delegate" - suddenly changed.
It would have been about how this woman, who is the only Maryland superdelegate from the Bowie area, can't decide whether to support Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama.
How she's tortured over who to endorse.
How the candidates and their people are coming after her, inundating her with calls and e-mails, and maybe even flowers, to get her vote.
"Flowers!" laughed Lauren Glover, the superdelegate in question. "No! They wouldn't do that!"
The written word has been the route the two Democratic presidential rivals have taken in approaching the uncommitted superdelegates, Glover said. "I've gotten e-mails, I've gotten letters from both campaigns," she said.
As for calls, Obama was the one who came through in that respect or, as Glover put it, "reached out to me."
The Blade-News was going to interview Glover Monday morning. But she cancelled at the last minute. "I'll tell you later today" why, she said.
That afternoon around lunchtime, Glover, along with former governor and Prince George's County Executive Parris Glendening; Michael Cryor, a communications consultant and chairman of the state Democratic Party; and Lanham attorney Karren Pope-Onwukwe held a news conference at the University of Maryland and announced they'd be voting for Obama at the convention.
Afterward, Glover talked excitedly to the Blade-News in a cell telephone interview from her car. She'd finally made up her mind. The pressure was off. Kind of. Because, as David Paulson, press spokesman for the Maryland Democratic Party explained, superdelegates are only superdelegates during the convention's first ballot; after that, they can vote for whomever they choose.
"We hate the term 'superdelegate,' " Paulson added.
Maryland has 99 delegates total. Seventy were popularly elected in the Feb. 12 primary. The remaining 29 are superdelegates, workers for the Democratic Party who are appointed; of them, 10 have yet to indicate which candidate they favor, Paulson said.
Glover is first vice chairman of the state Democratic Party. What converted her to Obama's candidacy?
"He reached out to me," she reiterated. "It was in the middle of March when I got a call from him. He wanted to make sure I understood why he was the best candidate."
It wasn't the fact that he called and Clinton did not that won her over, Glover said.
"I looked at the numbers, I looked at the facts such as who has the most pledged delegates. In February, all the (Democratic) candidates came and gave presentations at the Washington Hilton. At that time, all of them had so much energy and so much vision, and a strong group of supporters and followers."
Glover is a professional volunteer and, as a result, receives no salary, although she is married to a bank executive. She has two teenage boys about to enter private high school and college. The economy is "dire," she said. The cost of food is going up; and there's the mortgage and foreclosure situation, she said.
Glover picked Obama in her mind Sunday night. "Chairman Dean (former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who heads the Democratic National Committee) was telling us that now was the time for us to come forward and make our selections," she said.
"I was painstakingly neutral throughout the entire primary process. I listened to people, I talked to people. I looked at letters, e-mails and the numbers - national numbers as well as from Maryland," she said.
"I made my decision because Marylanders overwhelmingly supported Obama in the primary and Obama won in Prince George's," she said.
Next stop for Glover is Denver, where the national convention will be held Aug. 25-28. "I know that people are very passionate about both candidates," she said.
"The most important role we have now is making sure at the end of the day that, as Democrats and Americans, we choose the best person who can resolve our problems."
