Super-delegate: Hillary Clinton began lobbying us a year ago

[markomalley]

From the Desert Sun:

A new Public Policy Institute Poll of California suggests that the top Democratic presidential contenders are statistically tied in the June 7 primary. Forty-six percent of likely Democratic voters in the Golden State say they’ll support Hillary Clinton and another 44 percent say they’ll support Bernie Sanders.

At first glance, these numbers look troubling for Clinton. Sanders is gaining ground. Some previous polls showed the Vermont senator trailing a month ago by seven points.

But considering that Sanders will need a total blowout in the California primary to claim the nomination, the latest numbers could easily provide Clinton supporters with relief. She’s only 74 delegates shy, and there are 546 at stake in California. Voters will also go to the polls on June 7 in New Jersey, where Clinton is ahead. That state has 126 delegates on the table, meaning the former Secretary of State might mathematically clinch the nomination before the polls close on the West Coast.

In that event, Sanders would need to continue lobbying super-delegates ahead of the July convention — a process that, while his supporters bemoan as unfair, he appears to have started too late.

Jess Durfee, a Democratic National Convention member from San Diego, said last weekend’s private meeting with Sanders was the first formal conversation they’d had. Clinton’s people, on the other hand, issued a letter to all super-delegates — who can vote at the convention for whomever they please — on the same day she announced her candidacy, then followed it up with phone calls and emails.

“They were working it very early,” Durfee said, “as early as a year ago.”

Sanders knows this.

“In terms of super-delegates, we are way, way behind," he told late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday. "There were 400 super-delegates who announced their support for Secretary Clinton before anyone else was in the race, before the first ballot was cast. And I think that's just patently absurd and undemocratic and kind of dumb in the sense that when you make that judgment you want to know how the campaign is going, who is the strongest candidate.”

(remainder snipped)