AP, Washington :There’s little doubt which candidate the Democratic Party establishment supports for president. It’s not even close.Hillary Rodham Clinton has locked up public support from half of the Democratic insiders who will cast ballots at the party’s national convention, giving her a big head start in securing the nomination more than two months before primary voters start going to the polls.Clinton’s margin over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is especially notable because most of the people known as superdelegates don’t usually back candidates so early in the race.”She has the experience necessary not only to lead this country, she has experience politically that I think will help her through a tough campaign,” said Unzell Kelley, a county commissioner from Alabama. “I think she’s learned from her previous campaign,” he said. “She’s learned what to do, what to say, what not to say – which just adds to her electability.”The Associated Press contacted all 712 superdelegates in the past two weeks, and heard back from more than 80 percent. They were asked which candidate they plan to support at the convention next summer.The results: Clinton: 359. Sanders: 8. O’Malley: 2. Uncommitted: 210.The 712 superdelegates make up about 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. That means Clinton already has 15 percent of the delegates she needs before the first voters go to the primary polls.Her lead reflects Clinton’s advantage among the Democratic Party establishment, an edge that has helped the 2016 front-runner build a massive campaign organization, hire top staff and win coveted local endorsements.Superdelegates are convention delegates who can support any candidate, no matter whom voters choose in the primaries and caucuses. They are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee.The AP counted only public, on-the-record endorsements.Clinton is also leading most preference polls in the race for the Democratic nomination, most by a wide margin. Sanders has made some inroads in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary, and continues to attract huge crowds with his populist message about income inequality.But Sanders has only recently started saying he’s a Democrat after a decades-long career in politics as an independent. While he’s met with and usually voted with Democrats in the Senate, he calls himself a democratic socialist.
