In 2006 40 new Democratic Representatives and 8 new Democratic Senators entered the Congress.  All 48 emerged from heated battles; it can be assumed they spent a lot of time listening to and convincing the electorate.  The 40 new Representative enter 2008 as the most vulnerable of political animals - Freshmen Congressmen - ready to be taken down like newborns on the Animal Channel.  So wouldn't it be instructive to find out how these spanking new Super Delegates break in their endorsements?  The short answer, when you take out NY and IL (where favorite sons and daughters reside), is that 14 Freshman Congressmen have endorsed Obama and 1 Freshman Congressman (Joe Sestak) has endorsed Clinton.  Among the eight Senate Freshmen, 3 have endorsed Obama and one has endorsed Clinton (Rhode Island's Whitehouse).  Isn't this a pretty good indication of Obama's relative strength among voters as assessed by those Democrats closest to the political ground?

The following information was pulled from Demconwatch on April 24.  In looking at this list one should recall the assessment made by DNC Chair Dean, among others, that Democrats running for office, particularly primaries, have an incentive to wait until the last minute before endorsing so as to minimize the number of people they potentially piss off.

Key:  ? for undecided C for Clinton and O for Obama

Jason Altmire PA (?)
Michael Arcuri NY (C)
Nancy Boyda KS (?)
Bruce Braley IA (?)
Chris Carney PA (?)
Kathy Castor FL (O)
Yvette Clark NY (? now that's a ?)
Steven Cohen TN (O)
Joe Coourtney CT (?)
Joe Donnelly IN (?)
Keith Ellison MN (O)
Brad Ellsworth IN (?)
Gabrielle Giffords AZ (?)
Kirsten Gillibrand NY (C)
John Hall NY (C)
Phil Hare IL (O)
Baron Hill IN (?)
Mazie Hirono HI (? now that's a ? but Hawaii's Dems are cadre types)
Paul Hodes NH (O)
Hank Johnson GA (O)
Steve Kagen WI (O)
Ron Klein FL (?)
Nick Lampson TX (?)
David Loebsack IA (O)
Tim Mahoney FL (?)
Jerry McNerney CA (?)
Harry Mitchell AZ (?)
Chris Murphy CT (O)
Patrick Murphy PA (O)
Ed Permutter CO (O)
John Sarbaned MD (?)
Joe Sestak PA (C)
Carol Shea-Porter NH (O)
Heath Shuler NC (?)
Zack Space OH (?)
Betty Sue Sutton OH (?)
Tim Walz MN (O)
Peter Welch VT (O)
Charlie Wilson OH (?)
John Yarmouth KY (O)

And on the Senate side:

Maryland's Ben Cardin (?)
Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar (O)
Missouri's Claire McCaskill (O)
Montana's John Tester (?)
Ohio's Sherrod Brown (?)
Pennsylvania's Bob Casey (O)
Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse (C)
Virginia's Jim Webb (?)

Cross posted at DailyKos