Wednesday, February 6, 2008
There is nothing democratic about Democratic superdelegates
Democratic superdelegates are delegates that are not bound to the will of the voters. They fall outside the primary election and caucus system. For 2008, the Democrats will have 796 of these superdelegates attending the 2008 Democratic Convention. They will be casting votes along with the 4,049 regular non-super delegates. The superdelegates are not beholding to anyone. They can cast their vote as they please.
Who are these superdelegates?
- Former Democratic presidents
- Former Democratic vice-presidents
- Democratic governors
- Democratic senators and congressmen
- Democratic Committee muckety mucks
Out of all the groups that make up the superdelegates, it’s the later that bothers me the most. Who are these people?
Some of these superdelegates have already committed their votes to a candidate. For instance, even though nobody here in Maryland has yet to cast a single vote, Governor Martin O’Malley has already made a commitment to cast his superdelegate vote for Hillary Clinton. The same with Sen. Barbara Mikulski. She too has agreed to vote for Clinton.
This doesn’t mean that O’Malley, Mikulski, or any of the other committed superdelegates cannot change their mind. Superdelegates might be super, but they don’t have to keep their word.
What does all this mean? It means that Clinton or Obama could get the most votes going into the convention and still not get the nomination. A candidate coming into the 2008 Democratic convention with fewer regular delegates could make up for their shortage by locking in some of the 796 superdelegate votes.
There is nothing democratic about Democratic superdelegates. It’s about as undemocratic as you can get.
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