WASHINGTON — Barack Obama erased Hillary Rodham Clinton's once-imposing lead among superdelegates yesterday when he added more endorsements from the group of Democrats who will decide the party's nomination for president.

Obama added superdelegates from Utah, Ohio and Arizona, as well as two from the Virgin Islands who had previously backed Clinton. The additions enabled Obama to surpass Clinton's total for the first time in the campaign. He had picked up nine endorsements Friday, including the backing of Hawai'i Rep. Mazie Hirono.

The milestone is important because Clinton would need to win over the superdelegates by a wide margin to claim the nomination. They are a group that Clinton owned before the first caucus, when she was able to cash in on the popularity of the Clinton brand among the party faithful.

Those party insiders, however, have been steadily streaming to Obama since he started posting wins in early voting states.

"I always felt that if anybody establishes himself as the clear leader, the superdelegates would fall in line," said Don Fowler, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

"It is perceived that he is the leader," said Fowler, a superdelegate from South Carolina who supports Clinton. "The trickle is going to become an avalanche."

Superdelegates are the party and elected officials who are automatically eligible to attend the Democratic national convention in August in Denver. They can support whomever they choose, regardless of what happens in the primaries.

They are key because neither Obama nor Clinton can win the nomination without them.

Nearly 800 superdelegates will attend the convention. Obama now has endorsements from 276, according to the latest tally by The Associated Press. Clinton has 271.5.

FAIR GAME

In the overall race for the nomination, Obama has 1,864.5 delegates and Clinton has 1,697, according to the latest AP tally. Obama is just 160.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Meanwhile, Obama signaled that he has no objection to remind voters that the presumptive Republican nominee has admitted to a serious ethical breach.

At the end of a two-day trip through Oregon, Obama was asked about whether it was fair for one of his supporters, Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, to have invoked Sen. John McCain's role in a nearly 20-year-old scandal when he introduced Obama at a University of Oregon rally Friday.

Referring to McCain, DeFazio said, "He says we need less regulation. Hello! Wall Street mortgage meltdown, Bear Stearns taxpayer bailout, Enron, but, you know, I guess maybe for a guy who was up to his neck in the 'Keating Five' and savings and loan scandal, less regulation is better."

McCain was one of the "Keating Five," a group of senators disciplined for improperly trying to influence federal regulators in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s. It was, McCain has said, "the worst mistake of my life."

While slightly distancing himself from DeFazio — "Rep. DeFazio obviously delivered a speech that wasn't my speech," Obama said yesterday after touring a Bend company that makes solar energy equipment — he made it clear that McCain's record was fair game.

"John McCain's public record about issues that he's apologized for and written about" said Obama, "is germane to the presidency. ... I can't quarrel with the American people wanting to know more about that."

CANDOR QUESTIONED

Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, criticized the resurrection of the Keating case as the practice of politics as usual. "If Barack Obama doesn't have the strength to stand up to his own standards, how is he going to stand up for hardworking Americans who need a strengthened economy?"

Obama accused McCain, who has cultivated an image of candor, as a hypocrite for proposing, as has Clinton, a "gas tax holiday" during the summer months. Many economists do not support the plan, saying it would save consumers little money and potentially give oil companies larger profits.

"He has a straight talker image," said Obama, "but it's not clear that lately he's been following through. This gas tax holiday was a pander. He simply threw it out there thinking that it might help him get some votes."

Oregon and Kentucky hold their Democratic presidential primaries May 20; West Virginia holds its Tuesday.

A DAY WITH THE FAMILY

The subject of a running mate surfaced briefly, when Obama was asked about a report yesterday in The Chicago Sun-Times. Conservative columnist Robert Novak wrote that Obama's wife, Michelle, has nixed the idea of Clinton joining Obama's ticket. "My wife," he said dryly, "does not talk to Bob Novak on a regular basis."

Obama will spend Mother's Day in Chicago with his family but does not plan to attend church services. Alluding to the recent storm over his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama told reporters, "I am not gonna burden the church at the moment with my presence and as a consequence, your presence. ..."

The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.