Apr 25, 2008  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

Gay supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid celebrated this week after her victory in the Pennsylvania primary, but others contend that she cannot catch up to rival Sen. Barack Obama in the hunt for delegates.

Clinton topped Obama in the crucial Pennsylvania primary Tuesday by 10 points, taking an estimated 55 percent of the vote to his 45 percent.

“That was huge,” said Mirian Saez, a gay superdelegate from California who backs Clinton. “I think it definitely shifts the equation.”

Saez said Clinton’s win over Obama, the Democratic frontrunner, gave her campaign new momentum and other benefits as the primary season continues.

“What does it get her?” she said. “It gets her more popular vote. It gets her time and cash to be able to go into these other states and distinguish herself from Sen. Obama, like she did in Pennsylvania, like she did in Ohio, like she did in Texas.”

Peter Rosenstein, a Washington political activist on Clinton’s gay steering committee, said the victory also shows she can win another key battleground state.

“There are five or six states the presidency will revolve around, and Hillary has shown that she can attract seniors, women, Catholic voters and basically the white men that we call Reagan Democrats,” he said. “Those are the people who are giving her her victories, and those are the people that Democrats need to win in November.”

But Dan Pinello, a City University of New York government professor who is gay, said Clinton’s victory changed little in the continuing primary contest.

“If she had had a 15- to 20-point spread in Pennsylvania, it would be a different story,” he said. “But she eked out the absolute minimum necessary for her to continue.”

Pinello said Clinton remains down about 150 pledged delegates, and “there is no mathematical way now that she can win enough delegates to lead in that race.”

About 500 pledged delegates are available in the nine remaining caucuses and primaries. According to CNN tallies, Obama has 1,487 pledged delegates; Clinton has 1,331.

“In terms of the delegate race, Pennsylvania only had a minimal role,” he said. “And that’s really the bottom line. The delegates choose the nominee.”

Although she won all but a handful of counties in the state, Clinton faltered in Philadelphia, where Obama took 65 percent of the vote, just days after Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, visited a handful of gay bars in the city.

According to NBC News, the 28-year-old former first daughter joined Gov. Ed Rendell to stop at Bump, Sisters and Woody’s on April 18. Gay bar patrons greeted Chelsea enthusiastically.

“Chelsea, the gays love you,” one Bump patron reportedly exclaimed. “Oh, gosh, I don’t know if everybody loves me,” she responded.

Obama won the city’s two heavily gay wards, taking 60 percent of the vote in Ward 2 and 58 percent in Ward 5.

“Bill Clinton in 1992 did the same thing himself, pledging among other things to end the military ban, and look what happened,” Pinello said. “So the informed LGBT voter is not going to put a lot of stock in a Clinton doing the bar circuit in terms of real results.”

As the race between Clinton and Obama continued, one gay superdelegate advocated setting an endgame that coincides with the final primaries in June.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) last week told the Associated Press that the trailing candidate should exit the race no later than June 3, and as soon as it becomes clear they have no remaining practical chance at winning.

Frank, one of the party’s 20 openly gay superdelegates, has endorsed Clinton and serves as her campaign’s economic adviser. But he said if Clinton trails Obama on June 3, she should drop out of the race.

Other gay superdelegates were torn on the issue. Some said the primary contest should end as soon as possible, while others were hesitant to set a deadline.

“I’m not certain I really want to say when anyone should drop out,” said Jeremy Bernard, a gay superdelegate from California who backs Obama. “That’s a tough one.”

Bernard said he would not want to deprive any Democratic primary voter the ability to influence the process.

“What’s been neat about this season is that people have been able to participate who haven’t been able to in years — or ever,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with going through all the primaries, letting those people have a say, and then concluding it.”

But Jason Rae, a gay superdelegate from Wisconsin who backs Obama, said the increasingly bitter battle between Clinton and Obama could be doing the party more harm than good.

“It does hurt us a ...