WASHINGTON _ Sen. Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of a Maryland superdelegate Saturday, inching closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

Greg Pecoraro, a city council member in Westminster, Md., praised Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, but called Obama “the right leader for our time.”

“I strongly believe that Senator Obama offers us the best opportunity we have had for many years to turn away from the politics of division and despair, and look toward an America of opportunity and progress,” Pecoraro said in a statement released by the Obama campaign.

The pickup brings Obama’s delegate total to 1,905 to Clinton’s 1,719. The number needed to secure the nomination is 2,026.