Brian Colón, Super Delegate

Originally submitted on March 13, some elements in this article have become outdated.

by GRACE LORRAINE BOLOGNA

Brian Colón has suffered through enough consecutive 18-hour days to lose his sense of humor.

Currently, he is fielding at least 50 telephone calls and more than 200 e-mails every day--many from political officials who are hoping to enlist his support in the Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

He is managing such an extraordinary amount of traffic now because he is a "super delegate" for the party. Colón said he is “absolutely” the target of the presidential hopefuls’ enthusiastic attention.

Colón automatically received the super delegate position because he is chairman of the New Mexico state Democratic Party. As such, he bravely accepted accountability for the caucus catastrophe in early February.

The election turnout was so much higher than expected that the state Democratic Party was totally unprepared for it. Over 157,000 ballots were cast, including about 17,000 provisional ballots, a number of which were scrap paper ballots.

Nevertheless, February’s surprisingly large popular vote could conceivably be displaced by the votes of the super delegates, who will be electing the official presidential candidate at the National Democratic Convention in Denver in August.

The super delegates are beholden to none other than their own consciences when it comes time to cast their ballots for the Democratic Party’s nominee for the national presidential election in November.

New Mexicans voted 49 percent for Clinton and 48 percent for Obama. The appropriate number of “regular” delegates has been split to vote according to the proportions of constituents’ votes.

But, so far, only one of New Mexico’s super delegates has pledged his support to Obama. Six are already endorsing Clinton. Five remain undecided or unannounced. All of this gives rise to the two arguments that Colón said the campaigns are pitching to him and other “supers,” as the national race tightens and the super delegates votes become more important.

Clinton argues that since the majority of the state voted for her, all of the super delegates also ought to pledge their votes to her, Colón said.

On the other hand, Obama says that Democrats believe in proportionality; since six super delegates have committed for Clinton already, all of the others should support him. Obama says that Clinton’s "winner take all" proposal is the Republicans’ style, Colón said.

Colón has not made public his support for either of the two front-runners, Clinton or Obama.

“The gravity of this decision can't be overstated,” Colón said. Perhaps this is the reason New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, another super delegate, has also withheld any public declaration of support.

However, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Richardson said “Hopefully, I will make an endorsement, but you know … I don't think it makes a lot of difference."

The autonomous super delegates are given their privileged position because of their current or previous station as elected officials (such as governor, senator, representative,) or by virtue of their vested interest as political party leaders.

The entire number of delegates in the Democratic National Convention means the hopeful with 2,025 votes will win the Democrats’ nomination onto the ballot in the final November election. Of the approximately 5,000 delegates that are expected in Denver in late August, 795 of them are super delegates.

“It would be a disaster if the Democrats convened in Denver without a clear winner,” said Billy Sparks, former deputy chief of staff for Richardson. Sparks has attended all but one of the Democratic National Conventions since 1980.

“Most of the super delegates will probably wait to declare their support until the conclusion of the primary season in order to see three things: who leads in pledged delegates won during the primaries and caucuses, who leads in the total popular vote and who won the most states,” Sparks said.

Regardless, the Clinton and Obama campaigns both are presenting another and identical theme for super delegate Brian Colón to consider.
“They are [each] telling me how they believe they are the only candidate with the capacity to beat John McCain in November,” Colón said.

“I am absolutely available,” Colón said. He described his “M.O.” as whenever a Democrat has a concern, he listens to the problem, accepts responsibility for the situation and does whatever he can do to address their concern.

“I help them remember why they are a Democrat,” he said, “They can accuse me of a lot of things but they can’t accuse me of not working hard for the party.”

Normally, Colón is a busy attorney serving corporate clients, handling transactional negotiations, at the Robles, Rael & Anaya, P.C. law firm in downtown Albuquerque.

Colón said the reason he can do everything that he does is because of the guidance and support of Aleli, his wife for nearly thirteen years.

“For fun? I sit on the board of non-profit organizations,” Colón said. And then he laughed.

Written March 13, 2008

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