Superdelegates – The Impending Democratic Train Wreck?

A few entries ago, I promised to address the thorny topic of superdelegates to the Democratic Party’s National Convention. As they are attracting increasing attention, I guess I should follow up now.

Essentially, 20% or so of the party’s convention delegates fall into this superdelegate category. They are, typically, senators, representatives, governors, and other party poobahs, at both the state and Federal level. (Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was recently stripped of his superdelegate status for endorsing John McCain – a major no-no – for President.)

The other 80% of the convention delegates are the so-called “pledged delegates” chosen through the nominating process that began with Iowa and New Hampshire, continued through Super Tuesday, and will finally culminate in early June. As mentioned earlier, pledged delegates, whether chosen in a primary or caucus, are allocated by the Democrats through proportional representation. (Contrast this with the Republicans, who, in many states, award their delegates on a “winner-take-all” basis. As a result, the Republicans, not surprisingly, are a lot closer to crowning a nominee than are the Democrats.)

As we know, both Senator Obama and Senator Clinton are neck and neck in the pledged delegate count. With about 2/3 of the caucuses and primaries now concluded, and keeping in mind the proportionality concept, it’s becoming increasingly likely that neither candidate can secure the nomination based just on pledged delegates. So, as time passes, the importance of the superdelegates increases. And, because these delegates are not chosen in the primaries or caucuses, they can vote for whomever they choose. Thus, it could happen that a candidate behind in the pledged delegate count (and in the popular vote totals for that matter), could nonetheless win the nomination if she (or he) got enough support from the superdelegates. Many leading superdelegates assert it will never come to this but, all we can say at this point is: We’ll see. By the way, lurking as the next arcane but contentious issue, what to do with the previously disqualified delegates from Michigan and Florida? But that’s a topic for a future blog.

Meanwhile, and more immediately, today brings a primary in Wisconsin and a caucus in Hawaii. These may (but probably won’t) make things a little clearer.

Discussion Questions:

What do you think of the Democratic Party’s nominating process? In particular, do you think it is fair or unfair?

How (if at all) would you change the process? For example, would you keep proportional representation? Would you keep superdelegates without any restrictions on how they cast their votes?