Hillary Clinton ALREADY has the votes of 500 Democratic 'superdelegates'

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No wonder Hillary thinks she is inevitable: She ALREADY has the votes of 500 Democratic establishment 'superdelegates' locked up
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More than 500 superdelegates have already committed to Hillary Clinton, meaning she's one-fifth of the way to the nomination before any primaries
Superdelegates are party brass who can cast their vote outside of caucuses and primaries
They were put in place 1982 to ensure the Democrats didn't nominate another dud like George McGovern
See more on Hillary Clinton's presidential bid at www.dailymail.co.uk/hillary

By Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com

Published: 17:55 EST, 29 October 2015 | Updated: 21:24 EST, 29 October 2015

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Democratic voters haven't even had a say, and Hillary Clinton is already well on her way to becoming the party's nominee.

That's because she's racked up well over 500 superdelegate commitments, according to a count by Bloomberg Politics.

Superdelegates are party brass – ex-presidents, members of congress, state Democratic officials – who can vote for a candidate on top of pledged delegates, whose commitments are bound to the nominating contests they represent.

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Hillary Clinton is probably feeling super - that's because she's already grabbed up more than 500 superdelegates, Democratic party officials who can cast a vote for a candidate outside the primaries

Among Hillary Clinton's potential superdelegate supporters in the Senate - Tim Kaine, Claire McCaskill, Dick Durbin and Mark Warner - all four were early endorsers of the candidate

Bill Clinton, who is also a superdelegate, is working behind the scenes to get superdelegates committed to his wife Hillary Clinton's campaign

The superdelegates make up about 20 percent of all the Democratic delegates casting votes for a nominee at the party's summer 2016 convention.

'Today, Hillary has more support from superdelegates than all the pledged delegates awarded in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and a third of delegates awarded on Super Tuesday combined,' Clinton's manager Robby Mook said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg.

Bill Clinton, a Democratic ex-president and thus a superdelegate himself, has been working behind the scenes to nail down commitments.

Bloomberg reported that Clinton spoke to a mix of uncommitted and committed superdelegates on Tuesday night, making a plea for his wife.

The former president spoke for about 15 minutes and didn't take questions, while campaign advisers Marion Marshall and Joel Benensen also chatted with superdelegates on the call.

Some of Clinton's supporters are obvious, as a number of members of Congress endorsed the former senator and secretary of state early on.

All Democratic members of congress are superdelegates unless, like Joe Lieberman did to John McCain in 2008, they endorse a member of the opposing party.

In April, when she announced, Clinton had the support of 95 House Democrats and 32 senators as well.

Over in the House of Representatives, Hillary Clinton has been endorsed by Joaquin Castro, Rosa DeLauro, Debbie Dingell and Joe Kennedy III, which means theoretically their superdelegates will go to her

Folks like Sens. Dick Durbin, Claire McCaskill, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner said they were supporting Clinton from the Senate.

Reps. Joaquin Castro, Rosa DeLauro, Debbie Dingell and Joe Kennedy III said they were ready for Hillary in the House.

By August, Bloomberg had counted a total of 440 superdelegates, which includes those members of Congress and hundreds of other party faithful, too.

Superdelegates have played a role in Democratic politics since 1982, when the party decided presidential candidates needed to court the party faithful.

'Having superdelegates would ensure that members of the Democratic Party had some weight in case the Democratic voters picked a dud, as they did in 1972 when anti-Vietnam War liberal Sen. George McGovern won the nomination and not much else,' according to U.S. News & World Report.

The party was also responding to Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency, with many believing Carter was ineffective because, as a Washington outsider, he didn't have connections with major figures of the party.

Superdelegates don't necessarily have to stick with a candidate, as they don't vote until the convention, something that Clinton learned during the 2008 cycle, when many of her committed superdelegates moved to then-Sen. Barack Obama's column.

Now, of the approximately 4,768 total delegates, with about 2,385 needed to win, Clinton's 500 means she's already one-fifth of the way there, with the first caucus, in Iowa, not scheduled until Feb. 1.