Over 13,000 Iowa Democrats met in county conventions Saturday, giving Barack Obama more of an edge in the national race for the party’s presidential nomination.
It appears about half the delegates who’d supported John Edwards in the January 3, 2008 precinct caucuses switched their allegiance to Obama on Saturday. It means — once Iowa sends its allotment of delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver — that Obama will have 10 more delegates than what had been calculated after Iowa’s precinct caucuses. Why? Well, delegates to the county conventions can switch to another candidate. So, not only did former Edwards backers switch to Obama, but some who’d supported other candidates like Joe Biden and Bill Richardson switched to Obama’s camp, too.
When the final calculations were done after Saturday’s county conventions around the state, it appears Hillary Clinton lost an Iowa delegate. The Obama campaign is highlighting these results, as the delegate gains Clinton made earlier this month in Ohio’s primary were erased by the results here in Iowa this weekend.
These Iowa numbers may change again, however, after Iowa Democrats gather in five district conventions next month and after the state convention in June.