Given the extremely close race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination this year and the intricacies of the party's system for choosing a nominee, the power to make the final pick may fall to a group of party leaders like Dahlman.
Unlike many of the big-name superdelegates, however, Dahlman, a farm-ranch partner, lives outside a town of 1,800 people in eastern Montana without cell phone service or television reception.
All Democratic governors and members of Congress automatically serve as superdelegates, along with some other party officials. All but one of the seven in Montana have decided to wait until after Montana's Democratic primary on June 3 to choose between the two candidates.
Superdelegates were created in 1982 as a way to give some of the power over the nomination process back to party insiders. As many as
20 percent of the delegates at Democratic conventions are superdelegates. The last time they made a real difference was the close race in 1984.
Dahlman is serving her second term as a Democratic national committeewoman, and plans to run for the office again. “Attention has never been focused on us and our role before, so this is all new,” she said.
Although she is leaning to one candidate, Dahlman said she will wait to declare her preference until after the Montana primary.
“My understanding of the role of the superdelegate is we are to vote our conscience, because if we follow the dictates of the individual state primaries there would be no point to having superdelegates,” she said. “However, I want to take into account the popular vote in Montana before I announce my decision.”
If the race isn't decided by the next few primaries, Dahlman wants Clinton and Obama to come to Montana to outline their plans and engage in dialogue. “Usually Montana doesn't get much of a chance to be much of a player,” she said. “This may be one of the few times. That's why I've decided to wait.”
State Rep. Margarett Campbell of Poplar, another superdelegate because she is vice-chair of the state party, also is leaning toward one candidate but will wait until after the June primary.
“I have a preferred candidate, but I'm not going to get real rock solid until I find out what my constituents want, and I'll go with what my constituents want,” she said. “If I were speaking only as a state representative, I may not take that position, but since I'm the vice president of the party I need to reconsider that.”
Campbell only realized a short time ago what role she could play in the nominating process and became “really excited,” she said.
Campbell said she missed four calls from the Clinton campaign's national headquarters in the past five or six days. On the Obama side, she hears more from his in-state supporters.
Campbell said the Democratic process of picking a nominee is “very confusing” and worries that voters won't believe their ballots counted if superdelegates support a different candidate.
“I just feel like it's such an honor, but I do think it's problematic about how complex it is,” she said. “In Montana, we seem to be a lot more genuine in our state than in lots of other areas, and I think most representatives in Montana will be respectful of what their constituents want.”
Ed Tinsley, a Democratic national committeeman and Lewis and Clark County commissioner, pledged his support as a Montana superdelegate to Barack Obama last week. Tinsley cited Obama's positions on health care, the Iraq war, taxes and national service for college graduates.
“I'd been pondering it for a while and felt the time was right,” he said. “First of all, Senator Obama has captured the hearts and minds and imagination of not only Montana but citizens across the country. I think he's going to be the next president of the United States.”
As for why he pledged before the primary, Tinsley said he has signed on to a campaign prior to the primary for each of the last three conventions he attended.
Tinsley had messages on his answering machine from Chelsea Clinton, former party leader Terry McAuliffe and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for Clinton, and from former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle for Obama.
His wife took a call from Albright, Tinsley said. “That was pretty funny, she was freaked out a little bit,” he said.
Tinsley also gets contacted by many Obama supporters from around Montana, he said.
He believes that all the attention to the superdelegates will lead to a change in the process by which Democrats pick their nominee. “This is the one we have right now, so we have to live with it and deal with it,” he said.
Montana Democratic Party Chairman Dennis McDonald and Gov. Brian Schweitzer, both superdelegates, have not chosen a candidate.
“I'd like to establish a transparent process,” Schweitzer said. “I don't want our next president to be selected by virtue of the superdelegates one by one by one deciding which way to go.”
Schweitzer said if superdelegates as a whole agree to one option for choosing a candidate, he would abide by it. That could be supporting a candidate based on the popular vote nationwide, or the greatest number of delegates, or the popular vote in each state.
“Otherwise, I would probably wait and see what the will of the people of Montana would be,” he said. “I've made it very clear to everyone if I didn't throw my support to Bill Richardson, I doubt I'm going to take it to anyone else before I've got a clear sign from the people of Montana.”
U.S. Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester won't say whether they'll abide by the popular vote of the Montana primary, support the candidate with more pledged delegates or choose for some other reason.
“Max wants to let the process run its course, and after the primary in June he'll huddle up with Brian and Jon and figure out what the appropriate next steps are,” said Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser.
Tester spokesman Aaron Murphy said, “Jon won't be making any decisions about his convention vote until at least early June - after Montanans have their say in the primary.”
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