Clinton campaign focus shifts to Democratic superdelegates

Milwaukee: Senator Hillary Clinton on Saturday urged the Democratic Party's unpledged delegates to make their own decisions about whether to support her or Barack Obama, predicting that the battle for the Democratic nomination will continue into the summer.

"Superdelegates are a part of the process. They are supposed to exercise independent judgment," said Clinton of New York, who wants to put into play hundreds of the unelected delegates, as well as large contingents from Michigan and Florida, where the candidates did not campaign.

Clinton trails Obama of Illinois in the count of pledged delegates, awarded on the basis of primary and caucus results. She said she believes superdelegates, appointed by the party, should not simply anoint the candidate who is leading after the primary season. Clinton's remarks came as she arrived in Wisconsin for three days of campaigning ahead of tomorrow's primary. Hoping to blunt Obama's momentum, she has increased her efforts in a state that offers advantages to each.

Obama, who holds a narrow lead in two recent polls, won the last eight Democratic primaries and caucuses, but he trails Clinton in superdelegate endorsements. He contends that superdelegates should back the candidate who wins the most pledged delegates.

Clinton strategist Harold Ickes, himself a superdelegate, told reporters on Saturday the delegates should exercise "their best judgment in the interests of the party and the country".

Ickes pressed the Clinton campaign's attempt to validate the results of voting in Michigan and Florida. The states were stripped of their delegates after they moved their primaries in defiance of the Democratic National Committee. Democratic candidates agreed not to campaign in either state, and Obama and John Edwards removed their names from the Michigan ballot. Clinton, who beat a ballot slot labelled "uncommitted" in Michigan and won easily in the uncontested Florida primary, contends Democrats in the two states would be disfranchised unless their delegates are seated at the party's convention. The Clinton campaign opposes a proposal to hold new primaries or caucuses. "We don't need a redo," said Ickes, who voted as a Democratic committee member.