The Tyranny of Super-Delegates by Katrina vanden Heuvel

The Editors Cut blog at The Nation ^ | 4 January 2008 | Katrina vanden Heuvel

[K-oneTexas]

The Tyranny of Super-Delegates

Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa was also a good night for our democracy. The turnout broke records and young people – who were mobilized and organized – participated in unprecedented numbers. And now that Iowans have spoken – the first citizens in the nation to do so – here's the Democratic delegate count for the top three candidates (2,025 delegates are needed to secure the nomination):

Clinton – 169

Obama – 66

Edwards – 47

"Huh?" you say. "vanden Heuvel, you made a MAJOR typo."

In fact, those numbers are correct: the third-place finishing Sen. Hillary Clinton now has over twice as many delegates as Sen. Obama, and more than three times as many delegates as the second-place candidate, Sen. John Edwards. Why? Because the Democratic Party uses an antiquated and anti-democratic nominating system that includes 842 "super-delegates" – un-pledged party leaders not chosen by the voters, free to support the candidate of their choice, and who comprise more than forty percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination. Many have already announced the candidate they will support.

In a clear attempt to protect the party establishment, this undemocratic infrastructure was created following George McGovern's landslide defeat in 1972. It was designed to prevent a nominee who was "out of sync with the rest of the party," Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer told MSNBC. Democratic National Committee member Elaine Kamarck called it a "sort of safety valve."

In 1988, Reverend Jesse Jackson challenged the notion that these appointed delegates be permitted to vote for the candidate of their choosing rather than the winner of the state's caucus or primary. He was right to do so. Twenty years later, when the word "change" is being bandied about, isn't it time for the Democratic Party to give real meaning to the word? Strengthen our democracy by reforming the super-delegate system so that the people, not the party establishment, choose their candidate.

[K-oneTexas]

As of 12 January 2008

Election 2008
Primary, Caucus, and Convention Phase

January 2008 thru September 2008

---

Democratic Presidential Nominating Process

Republican Presidential Nominating Process

AK AL AR AS AZ CA CO CT DA DC DE FL GA GU HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UN UT VA VI VT WA WI WV WY

AK AL AR AS AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA GU HI IA ID IL IN KS KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MP MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VI VT WA WI WV WY

"Alternative" Delegate Votes (no sanctions)
Need to Nominate		2,208
(available)		4,348
Obama, Barack		25
Clinton, Hillary Rodham		24
Edwards, John		18
Biden, Joseph R. "Joe", Jr.		0
Dodd, Christopher J. "Chris"		0
Gravel, Mike		0
Kucinich, Dennis J.		0
Richardson, William B. "Bill", III		0
Uncommitted		0
Total		4,415

"Soft" Delegate Votes (FL, MI sanctioned)
Need to Nominate		2,025
(available)		3,982
Obama, Barack		25
Clinton, Hillary Rodham		24
Edwards, John		18
Biden, Joseph R. "Joe", Jr.		0
Dodd, Christopher J. "Chris"		0
Gravel, Mike		0
Kucinich, Dennis J.		0
Richardson, William B. "Bill", III		0
Uncommitted		0
Total		4,049

"Alternative" Delegates (no sanctions)
Need to Nominate		1,259
(available)		2,443
Romney, Mitt		24
McCain, John S.		17
Huckabee, Mike		15
Thompson, Fred Dalton		8
Paul, Ron		4
Uncommitted		3
Giuliani, Rudolph W.		1
Hunter, Duncan		1
		0
Brownback, Samuel Dale		0
Cox, John H.		0
Keyes, Alan L.		0
Tancredo, Thomas Gerald "Tom"		0
Total		2,516

"Soft" Delegates (FL, MI, NH, SC, WY sanctioned)
Need to Nominate		1,191
(available)		2,319
Romney, Mitt		21
Huckabee, Mike		14
McCain, John S.		12
Thompson, Fred Dalton		8
Paul, Ron		4
Giuliani, Rudolph W.		1
Hunter, Duncan		1
		0
Brownback, Samuel Dale		0
Cox, John H.		0
Keyes, Alan L.		0
Tancredo, Thomas Gerald "Tom"		0
Uncommitted		0
Total		2,380

TheGreenPapers.com will be tracking delegate counts, in both Major Parties, as both "Soft" (here assuming that relevant delegations will remain sanctioned into the respective National Conventions [that is: with no delegates to be seated at the Democratic National Convention and with but half the originally allocated delegates to be seated at the Republican National Convention]) and as "Alternative" (here assuming that the full delegation of an affected jurisdiction- as originally allocated before being sanctioned- is eventually to be seated [that is, at some point before the Conventions, sanctions will be lifted]) from now until each Major Party's respective National Convention convenes or until no delegation is any longer sanctioned, if this should occur prior to the Conventions.

[BipolarBob]

I was going through the process to become a super delegate until I found out I couldn’t wear my cape and mask to the festivities and so I walked away disillusioned with the whole process.

[Rome2000]

Are you trying to say the Democrats are a bunch of UNAMERICAN COMMIE types?

[proxy_user]

It would be a much better system to use unpledged elected office-holders, who could pick which candidate to support at the time of the convention.

They could automatically include all Dem senators, congresscritters, governors, and mayors of cities.

[K-oneTexas]

In the vein of the bipartisan pukefest and political correctness era ... I just wanted to share. /sarc

Whole system stinks!

[Cookie123]

Do the Rs have a similar type system? Probably not or she would have mentioned that, right?

[narses]

No.

[Bob]

Do the Rs have a similar type system? Probably not or she would have mentioned that, right?

I'm sure she would have. I've never heard of it on the Republican side. I didn't realize that the dimocRATs did either but, somehow, it doesn't surprise me.

[McBuff]

Wait. . .has Katrina van hyusselhosenlagen gone belly-up on the witch?

[gondramB]

Thanks for posting this - its new to me but it sounds like something I should read up on.

[FlyVet]

I’m hiding indoors for the rest of the day. When I agree with Vanden Heuvel, a fear a bolt of lightning from the blue sky.

[adorno]

When I agree with Vanden Heuvel, a fear a bolt of lightning from the blue sky.

Katrina is bringing up the subject now probably because of the 3 major candidates in the democratic party primaries, Edwards and Obama are the more liberal and closer to her communist leanings. If Clinton were to be campaigning as far left as Edwards and Obama, Katrina wouldn't be having a problem with the super delegates. Why didn't she bring up the subject in prior election cycles?

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

How stable (or fickle) are these super delegates? If they were to sense a ground-swell of support for ABC (Anybody But Clinton) would they keep their pledge — or would they turn on HRC?

[B.O. Plenty]

The super delegates won't do the trick for Hillary....what will are the electronic voting machines....

the fix is in...

[Continental Soldier]

Katrina vanden Heuval? LOL OK, yes, she is kind of hot, in a somewhat circumspect way, but she remains living proof that education does not necessarily produce an educated person. When I see her on television, I mute the sound. She is a semi-babe to look at, but not to listen to under any circumstances. LOL

[SE Mom]

The clue here (while she’s right about the crazy super delgate system) is that she wants Obama- who is even MORE left than Hillary.

[Dane]

Uh Katrina notice that the GOP has no “super” delegates like the donks have.

[K-oneTexas]

From Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States)_presidential_primaries,_2008]

Delegate selection

The Republican National Committee (RNC) allocates delegates to states and territories in four categories. Three district level delegates are given to states for each of their congressional districts. Ten additional at-large delegates are given to each state regardless of population. States earn additional bonus delegates for having U.S. Senators and governors from the Republican Party, sending a majority-Republican delegation to the U.S. House, maintaining partial or total Republican control of the state legislature, or casting a majority of their 2004 electoral vote for George W. Bush. Finally, each state automatically receives three party delegates: their two RNC delegates and the chairman of the state Republican party. Territories are only eligible to send at-large and party delegates. The rules and numbers of delegates are spelled out in the Republican party’s Call for the Convention, which was published on November 9, 2007.

Unlike the Democratic Party, which mandates a proportional representation system for delegate selection within a state, the Republican Party has no such restriction. For states with primaries, some states choose to use the “winner-take-all” method to award delegates within a state, while others do winner-take-all within a congressional district, and still others use the proportional process. Unlike the Democratic Party, where pledged delegates support the candidate whom they are pledged, state party by-laws determine whether each delegate is pledged and for how many ballots.

In caucus states, most state parties use a two pronged process. A straw poll, often called a presidential preference poll, is conducted of the attendees at the caucus. The results are released to the media and published on the state party website. Delegates are then elected to the county conventions. It is at the county conventions that delegates are elected to state conventions, and from the state convention to the national convention. At each level, delegates may be bound or unbound to a candidate. If unbound, delegates are not obligated to follow the results of the presidential preference poll. Thus, all estimates of delegates from caucus states are dependent on state party by-laws.

[scrabblehack]

Yes, that would seem more fair as well...except that they don’t...

Why is it that only certain Democrat congressmen/Senators get to be superdelegates and others don’t? I’ve been wondering this since 1984...

[EternalVigilance]

Actually, the GOP does have one hundred and fifty “super delegates,” three from each state: the national committeeman, the national committeewoman, and the state party chairman.