Three weeks ago, Political Fix alerted you to the planned KPBS presence at the DNC and RNC with staffers Joe Spurr and Kurt Kohnen joining me in both Denver and the Twin Cities. 

The time has arrived.  On Sunday, we three fly to the mile-high city prepared to cover the Democrats' events from a San Diego perspective.  Six days later, it's on to the Twin Cities for the Republican activities.  We'll be using both KPBS Radio and the kpbs.org web site as our media outlets.

I grew up in a Brooklyn apartment with a gaggle of relatives, all of whom were passionate about professional baseball and politics. We were uncompromising and vigorous about which team we loved and which political party and candidate deserved our support. And the best part was that we never did reach compromise and we expressed our disagreements loudly and often dramatically with waving arms and stomping feet. The teams about which we struggled were the Brooklyn Dodgers ("dem bums"), the ("high-falutin'") New York Yankees, and the cruel, cold New York Giants. There were even more political parties than local ball clubs in contention including, but not limited to, the Republicans, Democrats, the Socialist Workers Party, The Farm Labor Party, and the Communists. It was indeed a time of political tempestuousness married to baseball frenzy.

Now here we are decades later and 3000 miles away, and once again, I'm feeling an echo of that former time. True, the Padres are not inspiring anything resembling baseball passion these days. But, oh, our candidates - and I'm talking local. The Clinton-Obama dust-up becomes remote when you think about whether the mayor or the president will have a greater effect on your life. After all, the president can't influence whether the pothole in front of your property will be repaired.

So, congratulations to San Diego's candidates who are engaged in closely-contested races, close enough to get our voter-blood flowing a bit faster these days. At the risk of treading on a few campaign workers and supporter sensitivities, here are some really competitive contests:

• Mayor Jerry Sanders and Steve Francis for San Diego mayor
• City Attorney Mike Aguirre and City Council President Scott Peters for city attorney
• Sherri Lightner and Marshall Merrifield in District 1 (Phil Thalheimer has gone extreme with the number and tenor of his direct mail pieces)
• Stephen Whitburn (endorsed by Congressmember Bob Filner) and Todd Gloria (endorsed by Congressmember Susan Davis) in District 3
• April Boling and Marti Emerald in District 7

There are endorsements, news reports, blogs, and, best of all, kitchen-table and water-cooler conversations about these candidates, and some of those arguments are really loud and dramatic. Reminds me of my childhood.

Just days before the crucial Texas and Ohio Democratic primaries, Rep. Bob Filner and I spoke about his take on being a superdelegate in this very close contest at a very special time. Congress had returned to Washington after the President’s Week recess to tackle business as usual despite the buzz over presidential campaign politics. There were votes to be taken, meetings to be held, and visitors to greet. But one House member found time between votes to duck into Statuary Hall, one of the most imposing and funereal chambers on Capitol Hill. There, in the relative quiet and surrounded by sculptures of prominent historical figures, he pulled out his cell phone and answered my call. 

San Diego’s Bob Filner has been a Democratic congressman for 16 years and in that capacity, has had an occasional conversation with a White House occupant. Now, however, he finds himself actively pursued by presidential candidates and their closest advisors. He’s had long phone conversations about veterans’ problems (Filner is chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee) with Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton. Filner is on the receiving end of all this attention because he, along with 794 other Democratic Party insiders, is a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Superdelegates are current office holders including Democratic members of Congress, senators, governors, party officials and some VIPs such as Bill Clinton. They were so designated in 1982 to position them as a potential check against an unelectable nominee from outside the mainstream. This year, they emerged as potential kingmakers after Super Tuesday when neither Clinton nor Obama was clearly on the road to win the Democratic nomination.  But since then, Obama has piled up a significant lead after 10 more primaries. It is now likely that whoever wins the bulk of the delegates in the upcoming Texas and Ohio primaries will become the Democratic nominee.

In that case, each superdelegate won’t have to agonize over making a choice among the following options:

- their vote should ratify the popular vote
- their vote should ratify the vote within their district or state
- their vote should be determined by candidate lobbying
- their vote should be a personal preference 

If the voters rally around one candidate on March 4th, the superdelegates won’t need to unlock the door to the general election campaign.