With superdelegates holding the key to the Democratic presidential nomination, one undecided Democratic National Committee member is putting a price on his support.
Steven Ybarra, a California lawyer in Sacramento, says he wants $20 million for his endorsement.
It’s not for him personally, he says, but to register Mexican-American voters in New Mexico, Colorado and Florida.
He said his hope is that by adding more than 1 million of those voters to the rosters in those swing states, they could help swing the election to the Democratic nominee in November.
“I keep asking the question to the DNC, ‘Why won’t you earmark money for these voters?’ And their answer is, ‘Oh we can’t do that,’ which is a lie,” Ybarra said.
So will anybody pay up?
Legal experts say problems could emerge with such a quid pro quo arrangement — it might be considered commercial bribery and a court might be able to undo his superdelegate vote if such a transaction occurred.
So far there are no takers.
“Nobody showed me any money yet,” Ybarra told the Associated Press.
But it’s not too much to ask, he added.
In 2004, “they spent a billion (dollars) to lose,” he said.