The extremely competitive race for the Democratic nomination for president is raising some questions about the political process.

You now hear a lot of talk about superdelegates. Joy Griffin of South Bend wants to know, "Is Congressman Joe Donnelly a superdelegate and what is a superdelegate?

Northern Indiana Congressman Joe Donnelly is a superdelegate. But so far Donnelly is not endorsing Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

"Superdelegates are those delegates who are not chosen through primaries and caucuses," explained St. Mary's College political science professor Sean Savage. "And typically they are party officials."

Superdelegates didn't exist until the 1980s. Savage argues the idea developed in the Vietnam War era.

"You have to go all the way back to 1968," Savage said. "You had a very tumultuous Democratic convention. The belief of many of the most liberal anti-war Democrat is that the process was unfair."

Superdelegates are party elders who can offer a safety net so the candidate with the best chance of winning gets nominated.

But it's very controversial. Barack Obama is ahead of Hillary Clinton in both the delegate count and popular vote. But if he doesn't have the required number of delegates for nomination, a very real possibility, superdelegates could hand the nomination to Hillary Clinton.

"I will take into consideration a number of factors including, but not limited to the pledged delegate count, the popular vote, how the respective nominees fared in Indiana and the 2nd Congressional District and where each stands on issues of importance to North Central Indiana," Donnelly told WSBT News.

It's a potentially pressure packed decision for Donnelly.

"Others who don't have much that much longevity in office or come from closely contested states or districts, may once again carefully figure out which way the wind is blowing," Savage explained.

Donnelly is a first term member of Congress, representing a district that's a close split between Republicans and Democrats.

A Donnelly spokesman says the congressman is going to make a decision until after Indiana's primary. Republicans don't have superdelegates.

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