Superdelegate says Clinton needs ‘big win’ in Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON – New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, who has already pledged as a superdelegate to support Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid, said today that Clinton has to overtake rival Barack Obama in the overall Democratic Party popular vote to continue.

“I think she needs a good, big win” in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary, Corzine said on CNBC today, describing himself as an “aggressive supporter” of the New York senator. “You have to see a real cut into this popular vote, and I think she’s going to get it.”

Corzine, one of 794 superdelegates who could decide the Democratic presidential nomination, was asked what he will consider before casting his vote.

“Who’s got the most, I’m going to look at the popular vote,” he said. “I think you need at least the popular vote … I actually believe Michigan and Florida need to be part of that.”

Obama, an Illinois senator, leads Clinton by roughly 700,000 popular votes in primaries and caucuses from states that have already voted, not including Florida and Michigan, both punished by the Democratic National Committee for holding their primaries early.

“I think it’s crazy for Democrats to walk away from two of the biggest states, tell them that we’re uninterested in their point of view,” he said.

Corzine warned that the big beneficiary of disheartened Democrats in Florida and Michigan could be Arizona Sen. John McCain, who has all but clinched the GOP nomination. “There’s no reason to end up having people feel like this wasn’t a fair fight and somebody got pushed out of it prematurely,” he said, adding that the two states should hold new primaries, to be paid by Democrats.

Elsewhere on the campaign trail, both Democratic candidates returned to the fundraising track.

Obama, whose campaign today reported raising more than $40 million in March, has scheduled fundraisers in four homes in northern California on Sunday. And Clinton, whose campaign has yet to disclose her March fundraising total, attended a fundraiser in Silicon Valley on Wednesday and plans three more today in San Francisco, Pasadena and Los Angeles.

Obama raised a record $55 million in February, while Clinton raised $34.5 million. Their March fundraising numbers are due with the Federal Elections Commission on April 20.

Republican McCain, meanwhile, took his “biography tour” to Pensacola, Fla., where he trained as a Navy pilot before shipping out to Vietnam. Citing the stress placed on the armed services by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain called for a building up of U.S. forces, calling it “an urgent priority.”

“We waited too long to begin that buildup,” said McCain. “Had we begun to do it right after 9/11 – as we realized that we were now in a global struggle against a malicious enemy, or as we embarked on two wars, or even when it became clear to many of us that our flawed strategy and inadequate troop levels in Iraq were going to result in that conflict lasting far longer than anticipated – we would not be in the situation we are in now.”

johanna.neuman@latimes.com