U.S. Democratic Party chairman: End nomination race by July 1

Source: Xinhua | 03-29-2008 08:08

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Seeking to avoid a bitter nomination battle at this summer's Democratic national convention, party chairman Howard Dean said Friday that he hoped the race would be settled before July 1.

Speaking at CBS-TV's The Early Show, Dean said the nearly 800 "superdelegates" attending the national convention needed to make up their minds about which candidate to support before that date.

The race between Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is in a dead heat, with neither of them likely to get enough votes to secure the party nomination after all primary elections end in June.

A candidate needs the support of at least 2,024 delegates attending the Aug. 25-28 national convention to become the Democratic presidential nominee.

Conventional wisdom shows that the Democratic nomination will be decided by the party leaders who make up nearly 800 "superdelegates", either at the convention or before.

But a prolonged, indecisive battle between Obama and Clinton will be a nightmare for Democrats, who stand a good chance to win back the White House this year.

Dean has said he is willing to step in to avoid a brokered party convention that could hurt the party's chances in November.

"I think the superdelegates have already been weighing in. There's 800 of them and 450 have already said who they're for," he said Friday.

"I'd like the other 350 to say who they're for at some point between now and the first of July so we don't have to take this into the convention," he added.

Pressuring superdelegates to decide before the August convention will likely require the assertion of influence from party heavyweights, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Al Gore.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei