Obama gains key supporter in Nevada

A Nevada Democratic superdelegate on Thursday announced her support for Barack Obama, saying he is the best candidate for the party's chances in November.

Teresa Benitez-Thompson, first vice chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, became the second of the state's eight superdelegates to endorse Obama.

"After careful thought, it is my honor today to endorse Sen. Barack Obama who, day by day and state by state, is challenging politics as usual and engaging so many new, diverse, Democratic voters," Benitez-Thompson said in a post on Obama's campaign Web site. "These new voters will propel Sen. Obama to victory in November and help elect great Democrats at the state and local level."

Benitez-Thompson, 29, is a longtime Democratic activist in Reno and a former Miss Nevada. She works for Washoe County as a social worker handling adoptions.

In an interview Thursday, she said she always had been an open Obama supporter. "The campaign wanted to know if they could make a declaration about it, and I said, 'Sure,' " she said.

Benitez-Thompson pointed out that she is the only superdelegate from Northern Nevada, which strongly favored Obama in the Jan. 19 caucuses, and said she wanted to represent the region.

Nevada has eight superdelegates, party leaders who automatically get a vote at the national convention, in addition to 25 elected delegates. Two of the other superdelegates have endorsed Hillary Clinton, while the rest are neutral.

The superdelegates are likely to decide the Democratic nomination because neither candidate is likely to get enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination. As a result, the superdelegates have been the subject of intense scrutiny and lobbying.

A leader of Obama's Nevada campaign, state Sen. Steven Horsford, welcomed Benitez-Thompson to the fold. Horsford, a superdelegate because he is a member of the Democratic National Committee, previously was Obama's only pledged superdelegate in Nevada.

"We're excited. We've doubled the number of superdelegates in Nevada for Obama," he said. "Teresa brings a wealth of grass-roots experience in Northern Nevada and among Latinos."

Horsford, like many in the Obama campaign, has argued against the superdelegate system, saying it gives party elites the ability to overrule voters in primaries and caucuses.

"The pledged delegates certainly need to decide this election," he said. "But this is about our party unifying around the person who is best able to beat John McCain. We're encouraged that superdelegates are responding to Barack's momentum."

More Nevada Democrats supported Clinton than Obama in the state's Jan. 19 caucuses, when Clinton won 51 percent of the precinct delegates. But because of the way the 25 delegates are allotted, Obama is likely to get 13 to Clinton's 12 because he did better in rural and Northern Nevada.

There's also a question of whether Benitez-Thompson violated Democratic rules in coming out in favor of a candidate. A state party bylaw prohibits party officials from endorsing a candidate in a primary election.

State Chairman Sam Lieberman said he interprets that to mean he and Benitez-Thompson should stay neutral in the Clinton-Obama contest.

"The bylaws are pretty clear that state officers can't endorse, and I intend to hold to that," he said.

Lieberman became party chairman and Benitez-Thompson became first vice chairwoman last month when then-Chairwoman Jill Derby left her post to run for Congress. Derby also had pledged to stay neutral because of her position.

A party official involved in interpreting the rules, however, said the rule doesn't apply. "It is superseded by the DNC bylaws, which create a duty for the superdelegates to pick a candidate," said Matt Dickson, chairman of the state party's Bylaws Committee.

The committee discussed the matter and made that call when state Sen. Dina Titus, also a DNC member and superdelegate, came out for Clinton last year, he said.

In addition to Horsford, Titus, Lieberman and Benitez-Thompson, Nevada's Democratic superdelegates are Rep. Shelley Berkley, a Clinton supporter; embattled former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, a former chairwoman of the DNC's Black Caucus; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid; and state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

Benitez-Thompson said Thursday that given the math, she expects the Democratic contest to go all the way to the convention and be decided partly by the superdelegates.

"I'm not the first superdelegate to come out," she said. "Some people are not mentioning who their preference is, but I'm not that kind of person. Everybody's got their preference, whether they announce it or not, and I'm going to support the candidate I've always supported."

In the long and convoluted nominating process, superdelegates have gotten a bad rap, she said.

"One of the statements I wanted to make as a superdelegate is, I'm a regular person," she said. "I'm 29. I'm Latino. I've got a family. I'm not an elected official. People think the superdelgates are mysterious and going to sweep in out of nowhere, and that isn't me at all."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919.