This has been an incredible experience.  I have represented NC Democrats as a DNC Member in 1996 (as 1st Vice Chair), 2000, 2004 and, soon, in August, 2008.  This is the first time anyone has had any particular interest in how I cast my vote.  In fact, when in the last 3 Conventions when I had a vote, NY generally put the nominee over the majority and NC did not even get to announce its votes.   Obviously, until Obama captured the nomination, this cycle was different.   By February 26, 2008, it had become obvious that the DNC Members (who make up around 2/3 of the 800 or so "Super-Delegates" - actually "Unpledged PLEO's" -- the others are mostly Congressfolk and a few Governors and former DNC Chairs, etc) would play a larger role than in the years since 1984 (my first Convention - I went as a Page when was President of the YDNC) when Walter Mondale was actually elected by the SD's.   Consequently, I sent out an email to all of the SEC Members asking for their advice.  Out of the 600+ Members, only about 50 emails came back with bad addresses.  Of the 550+ that were delivered, I got back about 200 replies.   The gist of the replies and the path of my endorsement was:   (1)   The initial SEC replies ran about 70% Obama in the first few weeks, although the HRC emails picked up as the NC primary drew near so that the final count was about 60% Obama, 30% HRC, and 10% sympathy notes (2)   initially, the Clinton folks wanted me to declare for HRC immediately, the Obama folks wanted me to declare for Obama after either all of the primaries or at least after the NC Primary,
(3)   After Obama won a majority of the Texas delegates (HRC won the primary by 5, but Obama won the caucuses by 9 for a net win of 4 for Obama – showing organizational strength), the HRC folks wanted me to wait until after the 5/6 NC Primary and the Obama folks wanted me to come out prior to Texas and Ohio (by that time, my leanings were apparent to both sides)
Senator Obama with Elizabeth and me in Hickory, May, 2008. (4)   Once NC went so strongly for Obama on May 6 and it was obvious that Obama would help down-ballot Democrats in NC more than Hillary Clinton, the HRC folks asked me to wait until after the polls closed in Montana on 6/3/08.  The Obama delegate trackers were very patient in understanding that I wanted to wait.  It was, and is, my belief that having the Primaries go the distance strengthened the Democratic Parties in the remaining primary States after NC – witness, for example, the 70,000+ rally for Obama in Oregon. (5)   By June 1, I was calling the HRC campaign to confirm what they already knew concerning my plans to endorse after the polls closed in Montana.  I did not announce my intentions to the Press until the polls closed (I was gigging FoxNews (yech! – but a lot of fun to poke fun at) midday national show as late as 12:30 PM on 6/3 about not announcing until 10:05 PM)