Obama leads among elected superdelegates

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama is expected to win the race for superdelegates, political observers say.

Obama and rival Hillary Clinton are trying to woo the 795 superdelegates, the elected officials and party leaders who will likely determine who will be the party's presidential nominee.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that among superdelegates who are elected officials, Obama leads, while Clinton has a double-digit lead among the Democratic Party leaders who are superdelegates.

Many freshman members of Congress are staying on the fence for now, said one political strategist.

"The ones that are squirming the most are a lot of these freshmen congressmen," said longtime California consultant Bill Carrick.

That's because many of them were elected from Republican-leaning districts in 2006, when Democrats regained control of Congress, he said.

"All of them assume they're going to have pretty competitive campaigns in the fall, and they don't want to have to tell one group of their constituents that they're going with the other candidate," Carrick said.