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By Peter H. Stone, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

Some two dozen Washington lobbyists, lawyers, interest-group leaders, and politicos are in the thick of the action in the battle between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama over superdelegates to the Democratic convention.

Two K Street superdelegates -- Harold Ickes, who was deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House, and former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota -- are playing key roles for the Clinton and Obama campaigns, respectively, in trying to secure endorsements from many of the 797 superdelegates.

Building on her long-standing Washington ties, Clinton has already assembled a high-profile group of superdelegates who are former members of Congress and party elders. Among them are former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, now a lobbyist with DLA Piper; former Democratic National Committee Chairman Charles Manatt of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips; and Terry McAuliffe, also a former DNC chairman, who heads the Clinton campaign and oversees its fundraising efforts.

For his part, Obama has the backing of superdelegates James Zogby, president of the Arab-American Institute, Moses Mercado of Ogilvy Government Relations, and Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union.

Still to be won are 300 to 400 uncommitted superdelegates nationwide. Both campaigns concede that notching new commitments has gotten tougher.

"People are holding back to wait for more clarity," Ickes says. "It's hand-to-hand combat. I think people are looking at these two very strong, well-funded candidates and [waiting to see] how things shake out on March 4," when the major states of Ohio and Texas hold their primaries along with Rhode Island and Vermont. Many superdelegates are not committing at this time, agrees Daschle, special public policy adviser at Alston & Bird. "We're making sure that we keep close tabs" on which superdelegates are still in play, he says.

Paul Strauss, one of the District's "shadow senators," and several other superdelegates are weighing a possible joint statement of support for one candidate. Strauss says he has been contacted personally by both Clinton and Obama, but it hasn't stopped there. "We're hearing from all kinds of people inside and outside the Beltway," he says. "I'm not a guy who gets lobbied for his vote very often."

The Clinton and Obama campaigns are turning up the heat. Ickes, who recently took a leave of absence from the lobbying firm Johnson, Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart to work full time for Clinton, has ratcheted up the search for superdelegates by adding people to the campaign team and tapping more than a dozen well-connected lobbyists who make up what he calls the "Clinton alum" association.

This K Street group is overseen by Ickes's former lobbying partner, Pat Griffin, who ran the legislative-affairs shop in the Clinton White House. It includes such K Street heavyweights as Tim Keating, head of Honeywell's Washington office; Peter G. Jacoby of AT&T; Susan Brophy of the Glover Park Group; and Steve Ricchetti of Ricchetti & Associates.

Much of the effort, Ickes says, entails assessing the key facts that superdelegates "take into account" when considering a candidate and analyzing whom the superdelegates turn to for advice in deciding which candidate to support. Based on that assessment, the Clinton campaign then picks the best people -- members of Congress, Ickes, former President Clinton, and Sen. Clinton herself -- to reach out to the superdelegates.

The Obama campaign has a similar process. "I've called scores and scores of people in the last week," Daschle says. "We feel very good about the trends and the momentum." Still, Daschle concedes he has gained new respect for Bill Clinton's perseverance. "It's like we're working from the same list and he's three steps ahead of me."

Daschle has had help from key Obama backers in Congress, such as Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, and Richard Durbin of Illinois. Former Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., who now runs the Center for National Policy, has also worked the phones, making late-night calls to superdelegates on the West Coast as well as those from the key states of Ohio and Texas.

"The calls are going extremely well," Roemer says, adding that Obama's wife, Michelle, has been "very effective," in working the phones. Star power clearly helps. "I've encouraged the campaign to get Oprah," he says.

--Staff Correspondent Lisa Caruso contributed to this article.