Kossacks--recall that back in Speaker Pelosi affirmed that she would support the winner of the pledged delegate majority in the race for the Democratic Nomination. Shortly thereafter, a host of other Dem federal officer holders followed suit. Their names are here.
Well, this morning Ben Smith passes along the math on the pledged delegate count per Politico's expert. Jump on over for the details on the math and the Pelosi Club list.
Matt Seyfang emailed Ben Smith last night with the goods:
[After explaining his calculation of a net positive of 15 pledged delegates to Obama from last night] [w]hat’s interesting if these numbers hold is that this assures that Obama will win a majority of the 3,253 pledged delegates [excluding Florida and Michigan]. He’s now at 1,494. Under this set of numbers, he picks up 101 for a total of 1,595. A majority is 1,627, so he’s 33 short. If you assume he makes threshold in each of the remaining 24 districts for one delegate and then picks up at least one PLEO and one at-large in each of the 6 remaining contests, he’s at 1,631. The battle for the majority of pledged delegates is over.
At the time there were many of us who appreciated the wisdom of Speaker Pelosi's position, particularly as it served to undermine the argument that the Clinton camp was developing: that even though the pledged deelegate math indicated that Clinton would likely not overtake Obama, the superdelegates could overrule the outcome of the elections held in this primary and paternalistically insert their judgment for the will of the people to "protect" us from an "unelectable" nominee. But it also served to postpone a difficult decision for these Democrats between two fellow Democratic friends, and allowed them to avoid the risk of angering supporters of one candidate or the other. It doesn't have to happen today, and perhaps it makes the most sense to time the announcement of these endorsements together and closer to the WV primary to undercut or soften the blow of Obama's likely loss next week. But I should think that the Pelosi Club ought to be counted as Obama endorsers at this point and the magic number should come down to 165 or so (depending on whether or not Wexler and Lofgren are counted already, as I'm sure Daschle must be). And we should be on the look out for anyone in this group who makes noises about going back on their promise (cough, Cantwell, cough cough).
Pelosi Club list from Demconwatch:
As of 5/1 we have 9 members of the Pelosi Club:
Clinton endorsers:
Sen. Maria Cantwell (WA) - most pledged delegates, most states won
Uncommitted:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA) (added 3/30)
Christine Pelosi (CA) (added 3/30)
Gov. Roy Romer (CO) (added 3/30)
Former President Jimmy Carter (GA) (added 5/1)
Betty Richie (TX) (added 3/30)
Denise Johnson (TX) (added 4/6)
Obama endorsers:
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA)
Sen. Tom Daschle (SD) (added 3/30)
We also have 1 additional member from Florida:
Obama endorsers:
Rep. Robert Wexler (FL) (added 4/8)
UPDATE: as jfern pointed out in the comments, counting this group puts Obama at or very near a tie for superdelegates. And given that Jennifer McClellan just flipped, Obama may now have the superdelegate lead as well as the pledged delegate majority clinched.