Byzantine party rules control the votes of most of a state’s delegation to the national convention. The bulk are allocated according to the results of earlier primaries or (as in Hawaii’s case) caucuses.

But there is just a little room for a delegate or two whose presence is not specifically dictated by the results of the caucus. One such, however, is the “unpledged” superdelegate position selected by the party central committee following the regular convention. Unpledged is in quotes because the position is not allotted according to caucus results, but the folks running for the postion are quite clear on who they back.

In this case, the leading contenders for that slot were former Judge James Burns, son of the late Gov. John A. Burns and Jennifer Goto Sabas, an aide to Sen Dan Inouye. Burns was asked personally by Obama (they’ve golfed together when Obama visited Hawaii) to run, and he made no secret of where his vote would go. Sabas, naturally, would be sensitive to the wishes of his boss, a strong Clinton backer.

Burns won that contest in squeaker by just a very few votes over Sabas, suggesting that the inner heirarchy of the party is far from a monolithic pro-Obama machine one might have thought it would become on caucus night.

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