BlueBloggin

In a recent post, I pointed out that the MSM delegate numbers are estimates of election results and should not be relied on until they are certified. With that said, the caucus number shuffle started this weekend in Iowa at their country convention. Edwards delegates moved to Obama, giving him 25 delegates to Clinton’s 14 delegates. Also, to add to Obama’s delegate count, the California Secretary of State has certified the primary vote and Obama gained five more delegates.

The current delegate count:
Obama: Pledged - 1,404; Superdelegates -207; Total: 1,611
Clinton: Pledged -1,243; Superdelegates - 237; Total: 1,480

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Barack Obama expanded his fragile lead in delegates over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday, picking up nine delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

More than half the 14 delegates allocated to John Edwards, on the basis of caucus night projections, switched Saturday to Obama.

Iowa Democratic Party officials said that with all of the delegates picked, Obama claimed 52 percent of the delegates elected at county conventions on Saturday, compared with 32 percent for Clinton. Some of the delegates picked at Saturday’s conventions were sticking with Edwards, even though he’s dropped from the race since Iowa held its caucuses in January.

Democratic Party projections said the results mean Obama increased by nine the number of delegates he collects from the state, getting a total of 25 compared with 14 for Clinton and six for Edwards.

“Barack Obama stands for a lot of the same things that John Edwards stood for,” said Ro Foege, a state legislator from Mount Vernon who switched to the Obama camp.

The next step in that process was Saturday with selection of delegates to congressional district and state conventions. Party officials said the results Saturday marked the election of 2,173 of the 2,500 delegates who will go to those convention.

Also Saturday, California’s Democratic Party finalized the delegate counts from its Feb. 5 primary. Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, raising her state total to 204; Obama gained five, raising his figure to 166.

Counting Saturday’s new figures from Iowa and California, an Associated Press delegate tally showed Obama with 1,617 delegates and Clinton with 1,498.

Posted by nytexan March 15th, 2008 | Category: Caucus, Clinton, Democrat, Edwards, Elections, Obama, Politics, primary | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL