Feb. 18, 2008 -- Cecil R. Benjamin has not missed a Democratic National Convention (DNC) since 1984, but compared to this year, past trips seemed largely a matter of "going through the motions," said the current chief of the territory's Democratic Party.
By the time the V.I. delegates were asked to register their votes for a party nominee, that candidate had long since been decided and the lights in the convention hall were all but going off. This August, however, will be different.
"Completely different," Benjamin said, "because of the fact that we are having a national campaign that is so tight, and getting tighter and tighter."
At the upcoming DNC, how the Virgin Islands votes will be of national significance. As Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama seek the nomination in a virtual dead heat among delegates, the Virgin Islands is experiencing its own deadlock.
In a contest that could well be decided by those party regulars known as superdelegates, the superdelegates in the territory reflect the current nail-biting divide in the national Democratic Party. Two of the territory's six superdelegates support Clinton, and two support Obama. The remaining two are undeclared, leaving many in the territory wondering whether the Virgin Islands -- whose voters overwhelmingly endorsed Obama in the Feb. 9 primary -- will wind up giving Clinton an endorsement significantly at odds with the will of the territory's electorate.

As of Feb. 17, national counters gave Obama a 2 percentage-point lead over his rival, coming in with 45.2 percent of delegate support versus Clinton's 43.2 percent, according to realclearpolitics.com (RCP), which averages the results of leading pollsters, including CNN, Time, Gallup and USA Today. That RCP total includes both pledged delegates and superdelegates.
Unlike pledged delegates, who are bound to vote in accordance with the constituents who selected them in a primary or caucus, superdelegates are comprised of elected and party officials who are not bound by the wishes of their constituents. Some believe they should be, while others liken them to jurors, responsible for rendering a decision of conscience based on all the evidence.
"The closer the race becomes, the superdelegates become more important," Benjamin said. "They decide what happens down to the wire, and it will probably be decided on the basis of the strength of the superdelegates."
Out of a total pool of 795 superdelegates, a New York Times tabulation Monday reported that 369 remain uncommitted, or at least silent. The rest are leaning strongly toward Clinton, who has 256 compared to 170 for Obama. The legacy of the Clintons and their political relationships built up over decades presents a challenge to the relative newcomer, Obama, in the arena of party insiders.
Nevertheless, Obama is expected to nab some of Clinton's superdelegates, because even after superdelegates publicly declare their choice, they are allowed -- and even encouraged -- to change their views, depending on which way the overall count is headed. No one wants to be a party spoiler -- Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, among them. A leader from the civil rights era and one of Clinton's most prominent black supporters, Lewis said Thursday that he's switching to Obama to avoid a convention floor battle.
The Virgin Islands' delegates will go to the 45th Democratic National Convention Aug. 25-28 in Denver, Colo., with 12 delegates, but only nine delegate votes. The territory's six pledged delegates -- the ones who must vote for Obama because 90 percent of the electorate supported him -- receive half a vote each, for a total of three delegate votes. By contrast to those half-votes, a full vote is accorded to each of the territory's superdelegates. They are Gov. John deJongh Jr. and Benjamin, who support Obama, and Delegate Donna M. Christensen and Democratic Party committeeman Kevin Rodriguez, who support Clinton.
That makes the tally 5 to 2 in favor of Obama right now.
Undeclared
The territory's two presently undeclared superdelegates are Marylyn Stapleton, vice chairman of the territory's Democratic Party, and Carol Burke, a committeewoman. Should they swing to Clinton, that means a 5-4 divide, with delegates nearly split between the candidates in a territory that saw only seven percent of the electorate backing the senator from New York.
The spotlight is shining down on both women. One declares no allegiance to her electorate, and the other speaks cautiously about the direction she will take.
"I know who I want to support, but I don't want to tell anybody yet," Stapleton said Saturday. "Because I don't think it's anybody's business except my own. I think it's based specifically on how I feel. Because it's my vote and it's supposed to be a private and personal thing ... it's not something I have to push out to the world. It's my business."
Political pollster Gordon Black, former CEO of Harris Interactive, the largest Internet polling operation in the world, cautioned superdelegates such as Stapleton.
"If somebody wants to go against the grain of all the people in their community, they can do it," Black told an Obama gathering on St. Thomas Sunday. "But they're not going to have a future in politics, because people remember that."
Party Chairman Benjamin agrees with Black.
"All politics are local," he said. "That's where you start, and superdelegates should reflect the support of their constituency, because their constituency voted and put them there to represent them. As simple as that."
Stapleton, however, feels no pressure.
"I'm 71 years old," she said with a laugh. "No one could put pressure on me for anything."
Burke, meanwhile, sees a dual obligation -- to the electorate and to her own vision of what's best for the Virgin Islands.
"I don't see one over the other," she said. "I have to be mindful of the wishes of my constituents by virtue of my position. But at the same time, I'm also a party person. I have to use my knowledge of the political process and be aware of the wishes of the leadership of the national party so that the V.I. is in their mind when it's all played out."
Committeeman Rodriguez doesn't depart from Burke's approach. He acknowledged that should the party go for Obama, he'll "take that under advisement." In other words, he'll likely vote in accordance with his constituents. However, he has just come out publicly for Clinton, out of loyalty and his belief in her leadership skills.
"I was always committed to Hillary, because I feel she's a better candidate," Rodriguez said. "I'm very proud of Barack Obama. I think he's doing a great job. I'm honored as an African-American to have him in the position he is in, but I feel Hillary is still the better candidate to lead the party to victory in November."
Christensen's Position
No disagreement from Christensen. She made her choice clear some four months before the primary process began in February. Given the V.I. tidal wave for Obama since then, Christensen said she's not flouting the electorate because -- based on a lot of conversations she had at this weekend's Agriculture Fair on St. Croix -- she believes support for Clinton is stronger here than it seems.
"There's still a lot of Hillary support in the territory, albeit quiet, because making that public makes you the target of ridicule," Christensen said, adding that the superdelegate process is a valuable one. "Those who were involved in putting it together realized that sometimes you needed someone who knew the candidates well, who worked with them and who would bring a different perspective to balance out passion and fervor about a candidate."
As divided as the local superdelegates are, they're all of the mind that come time for the convention, they will work to ensure that a single candidate has the backing of the territory.
"All of us are committed to working for the candidate who comes out with the nomination to ensure their election," Christensen said. "Although the cameras have me hugging Hillary at the debates and the State of the Union, they missed me hugging and shaking hands with Obama at the State of the Union. We work together despite the candidates we support. It's a very respectable process."
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