9 more superdelegates endorse Obama

Sen. Barack Obama appeared to eclipse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the crucial race for Democratic superdelegates today as the campaigns turned their sights on Oregon, where balloting by mail is already underway.

Obama picked up at least nine new superdelegates by midday – including one Clinton defector – while Clinton added one new backer. The flow of delegates to Obama led ABC News and the New York Times to declare Obama in the lead among superdelegates. The Associated Press, whose tally is used by the Los Angeles Times, still gave a slight advantage to Clinton – with Obama closing quickly.

The new Obama endorsements include Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.), an early African American supporter of Clinton. He jumped ship this morning, telling the Newark Star-Ledger that he had backed Clinton when he thought Obama’s campaign was “just a trial balloon.”

Previously uncommitted superdelegates now backing Obama include two California members of the Democratic National Committee: Ed Espinoza of Long Beach and Vernon Watkins of Rancho Cucamonga.

Espinoza urged uncommitted superdelegates to make their declaration by May 26.

“This needs to be over and done with by Memorial Day,” Espinoza said.

Evidencing the kind of behind-the-scenes lobbying underway, Espinoza said he backed Obama in part at the urging of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, for whose presidential campaign he had worked before Richardson dropped out.

New York Sen. Clinton picked up one superdelegate today: Rep. Christopher Carney, a Democrat who represents a district in northeast Pennsylvania that gave Clinton a 2-1 margin when she won the April 22 primary there.

Meanwhile, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who ended his presidential bid earlier and has yet to endorse, joined the pundits and said today he thought Obama would be the nominee.

“It’s very difficult to make the math work” for Clinton, Edwards said on NBC’s “Today” show, but deflected a question about whom he supports. “I voted and I’m going to keep that between me and the polling booth right now.”

The Clinton campaign sought to shore up her candidacy by releasing a statement by 16 congressional superdelegates from swing states urging fellow Democrats in the House to support her – and taking her win in Pennsylvania as a cue.

“Pennsylvania was not just a victory for Hillary Clinton. It was also a wake- up call for superdelegates, forcing us to ask ourselves two essential questions,” the letter said, defining those points as who can win in the fall and who “is most likely to help our fellow Democrats in down-ballot races?”

On the trail, Clinton showed no signs of relaxing her pace, resuming her criticism of Obama after going relatively light on him after Tuesday’s split decisions in the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Clinton slammed Obama for proposing what she described as less-than-comprehensive healthcare.

“How can anyone run for the Democratic nomination and not have a universal healthcare plan?” Clinton asked. “This is a huge difference.”

Obama, though, virtually ignored Clinton as he addressed a crowded lobby of an eco-friendly family-owned company in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Beaverton.

Obama’s focus: McCain.

“Sen. McCain is running for president to double-down on George Bush’s failed policies,” Obama told several dozen employees of Vernier Software & Technology, which makes classroom products for science teachers. “I am running to change them, and that’s what will be the fundamental differences in this election when I am the Democratic nominee for president.”

In response to an employee’s question, Obama flatly stated that he expected Clinton to win the upcoming primaries in West Virginia and Kentucky “by significant margins” and predicted that he would do well in Oregon. He promised to campaign hard in Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico.

Conceding two upcoming states to Clinton, campaign watchers have said, would help soften the blow of Clinton victories in those states, which otherwise could prove embarrassing to Obama as he increasingly portrays himself as his party’s presumptive nominee.

Obama was asked about the possibility of picking Clinton, should he win, as his running mate.

“We do not have this nomination locked up,” he said. “Until I am the nominee, I don’t want to speculate on running mates.”

He went on to praise Clinton as “an extraordinary candidate, and an extraordinary public servant… . She would be on anyone’s short list of vice presidential candidates. But beyond that, I don’t want to offer an opinion.”

With the Democrats in Oregon, McCain had the East Coast to himself, where he ignored Clinton to focus on the Illinois senator. And signaling the tenor of what many see as the campaign to come, McCain, during a brief visit to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J., defended his recent assertion that Hamas favored Obama.

In April, after hearing that a Hamas advisor praised Obama in an interview, McCain told bloggers on a conference call that it was “very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States.” Obama said McCain’s comments were offensive and amounted to “a smear” during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday, and added that his policy toward Islamic militant group was indistinguishable from McCain’s.

McCain said this morning that it was “very obvious to everyone that Sen. Obama shares nothing of the values or goals of Hamas, which is a terrorist organization” and contended that he “never implied anything else.” But that “a spokesperson from Hamas said that he approves Senator Obama’s candidacy” is of interest to the American people.

“That is something that needs to be discussed – why his policies should meet the approval of a spokesperson for Hamas,” McCain said. “I believe it’s a legitimate point of discussion.”

The 71-year-old senator seemed less upset than his aides, however, about Obama’s assertion that McCain was “losing his bearings” as he pursued the White House. McCain’s longtime advisor, Mark Salter, criticized the phrase as an inappropriate attack on McCain’s age.

“I ignore it; I don’t take offense to it,” McCain said, adding that Obama’s relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. was also a “legitimate topic.”

 scott.martelle@latimes.com

Martelle reported from Orange County, Nicholas from Washington. Robin Abcarian in Beaverton, Bob Drogin in Portland and Maeve Reston in Jersey City also contributed to this report.