Progress Illinois

Rep. Jan Schakowsky says she knows of "at least eight" superdelegates who plan on voting for Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention, but have not yet made their decisions public. Schakowsky, an Obama supporter, brought up these undeclared (but apparently already decided) members of Congress in a City Desk interview with NBC5's Carol Marin that taped on Friday and aired yesterday:

MARIN: Are there a lot of really intense conversations in the halls of Congress with you and superdelegates who haven’t made a commitment yet? I mean, are those pretty rigorous conversations with colleagues?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I mean, they're usually one-on-one conversations. And no, we know our friends and our colleagues so we try and look for the right buttons to push. But look, some people have reasons locally that they’re not endorsing for their own races, everybody's up in the House of Representatives. But I do know, I would say, at least eight of my colleagues who will vote for Barack Obama at the convention. It’s just a question of whether or not -- or when -- they come out and say it.

At current count Clinton has the support of 249 superdelegates, Obama has 223 (not including Schakowsky's "eight or so") and 257 are undeclared.

Elsewhere in the interview, Schakowsky spoke about infighting between Democrats in Springfield, the impact of the Iraq War on the presidential race, and her husband, author and activist (and Progress Illinois contributor) Bob Creamer.