Difference between revisions of "Superdelegate"

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One state, Wisconsin is recorded as having voted ''twice'' according to the official surviving record in primaries and caucuses under the new rules Mondale's DNC machine engineered. The official record shows Hart winning a plurality, 44% to Mondale's 41%; three days later in a highly unusual move, the "Wisconsin caucus" delivered a 54% to 29% majority (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_1984#Results_by_state|Wikipedia:results by state] to Mondale in a winner-take-all closed caucus.<ref>[[Progressive]]s would say ''Fighting'' Bob LaFollette turned over in his grave.</ref>. Wisconsin Democrats had won a ruling against the Democratic National Party in the state Supreme Court which the DNC appealed to in the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin was ''forced'' to abandon 80 years of direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection (see [[Winograd Commission]]). Voters were disenfranchised, and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference.”<ref> The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with an 80 year old state law and the national party's rules of delegate selection. </ref>
 
One state, Wisconsin is recorded as having voted ''twice'' according to the official surviving record in primaries and caucuses under the new rules Mondale's DNC machine engineered. The official record shows Hart winning a plurality, 44% to Mondale's 41%; three days later in a highly unusual move, the "Wisconsin caucus" delivered a 54% to 29% majority (see [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_1984#Results_by_state|Wikipedia:results by state] to Mondale in a winner-take-all closed caucus.<ref>[[Progressive]]s would say ''Fighting'' Bob LaFollette turned over in his grave.</ref>. Wisconsin Democrats had won a ruling against the Democratic National Party in the state Supreme Court which the DNC appealed to in the [[U.S. Supreme Court]]. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin was ''forced'' to abandon 80 years of direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection (see [[Winograd Commission]]). Voters were disenfranchised, and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference.”<ref> The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with an 80 year old state law and the national party's rules of delegate selection. </ref>
  
−
Wisconsin Democrats sued the DNC over its efforts to enforce the [[undemocratic]] rules of the [[Winograd Commission]] which targeted the 80 year old body of law behind Wisconsin's primary system, which the McGovern-Fraser compromise used to expand primaries to dozens of other states.  The DNC appealed to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] and won, forcing Wisconsin Democrats to abandon the direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection. Because the state legislature had not acted yet, "voters" became "participants" and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference”<ref>[http://www.bustle.com/articles/144701-what-is-a-binding-primary-or-caucus-these-distinct-events-require-delegates-to-do-this What Is A Binding Primary Or Caucus?], MORGAN BRINLEE, February 29 2016. bustle.com </ref><ref>The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with state law and national party rules of delegate selection. </ref>, essentially disenfranchised. ''Fighting'' Bob La Follette's legacy, the founder of the [[Progressive]] movement, was completely undone.<ref>See [https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_Party_of_U.S._v._Wisconsin_ex_rel._La_Follette Democratic Party of U.S. v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette], ballotopedia.org  </ref>
+
Wisconsin Democrats sued the DNC over its efforts to enforce the [[undemocratic]] rules formulated by the Winograd Commission which targeted the 80 year old body of law behind Wisconsin's primary system, which the McGovern-Fraser compromise used to expand primaries to dozens of other states.  The DNC appealed to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] and won, forcing Wisconsin Democrats to abandon the direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection. Because the state legislature had not acted yet, "voters" became "participants" and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference”<ref>[http://www.bustle.com/articles/144701-what-is-a-binding-primary-or-caucus-these-distinct-events-require-delegates-to-do-this What Is A Binding Primary Or Caucus?], MORGAN BRINLEE, February 29 2016. bustle.com </ref><ref>The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with state law and national party rules of delegate selection. </ref>, essentially disenfranchised. ''Fighting'' Bob La Follette's legacy, the founder of the [[Progressive]] movement, was completely undone.<ref>See [https://ballotpedia.org/Democratic_Party_of_U.S._v._Wisconsin_ex_rel._La_Follette Democratic Party of U.S. v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette], ballotopedia.org  </ref>
  
 
Under the original rules, Superdelegates were not supposed to "commit" to  a candidate until the convention. Hart says he and his wife personally spoke with all of them to ask for their support, but virtually all were committed to Mondale for 2 years already<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080218151847/http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/gary-hart-how-s.html Gary Hart: How Superdelegates Did Me In in '84], Interview with Jennifer Parker, ABC News, Feb. 13 2008.</ref>.
 
Under the original rules, Superdelegates were not supposed to "commit" to  a candidate until the convention. Hart says he and his wife personally spoke with all of them to ask for their support, but virtually all were committed to Mondale for 2 years already<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080218151847/http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/02/gary-hart-how-s.html Gary Hart: How Superdelegates Did Me In in '84], Interview with Jennifer Parker, ABC News, Feb. 13 2008.</ref>.

Revision as of 01:38, May 15, 2016

A Superdelegate refers to a delegate to the Democratic national convention by virtue of holding office or being selected by the party leaders rather than elected through the ordinary processes grassroots primary election and caucus process. Superdelegates are not pledged to any one candidate and are free to vote for any candidate, usually the candidate who has donated the most money to their campaigns.[1].

One fifth of the delegates to the Democratic national convention are superdelegates, essentially giving them veto power over a popular choice in a close race for the presidential nomination[2].

The Democrats adopted this system of superdelegates to to lock out "insurgent candidate" and avert another fiasco like that experienced in 1972, when the purely democratic nomination process produced an unelectable candidate for president, George McGovern.

Hunt Commission

After Ted Kennedy's challenge and President Carter's loss in 1980, Democrats met again for the fourth time in twelve years to re-write nominating and convention procedures[3]. Anticipating a two-way contest in 1984 between Sen. Kennedy and former Vice President Mondale[4], the original point of contention was over bound delegates which Sen. Kennedy wanted to loosen, while the Mondale machine wanted a candidate to be able to go so far as to replace a "disloyal delegate"[5].

The Mondale machine, supported by Chairman Jim Hunt and labor leaders, more importantly wanted to do something about outsiders and New Left “extremists”[6] they felt had taken over the party[7][8][9]. The Mondale and Kennedy machines wanted to do away with portions of the McGovern-Fraser (known as the "reform movement") compromise that had frozen elected government office holders out of the nomination process[10] and paved the way for an "insurgent candidate". The new rules the Democratic National Committee (DNC) adopted didn't just allow or encourage incumbents to return, it guaranteed elected officials seats outside the regular delegate selection process. The Kennedy faction wanted to cut the number of the roughly 800 reserved seats in half[11]. Susan Estrich, who was to manage Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign[12] strenuously objected to the plan, and derisively coined the term "super-delegate", whom she claimed would disproportionately be white males based upon the formula[13]. Nevertheless, the idea became rule, and from its initial inception has only been expanded upon since[14]. The "Old Democrats" had retaken power with a vengeance.

The Hunt Commission (also known as the "counter-reform movement") discarded the proportional allocation rules from the 1970s in favor of winner-take-all rules. Prior to proportional representation there was the “unit rule”, a delegation had to vote as a unit, now known as “winner-take-all”. McGovern-Fraser scraped the unit rule in favor of affirmative action, or “proportional representation”, rather than actual votes cast. Today’s supposed “unpledged” Superdelegates function as the local bosses whose cronies, that is, “pledged delegates”, earned their status working to elect Superdelegates to public office in previous elections. Together they function as a unit wherein the boss’s favorite carries the majority of delegates from a state.

The winner-take-all rules ultimately had the unintended affect in 1984 of allowing an insurgent candidate for whom the rules were not written, to rack up big delegate wins in late primary states[15]. So the party returned to "proportional allocation".

When Sen. Kennedy decided not to run in 1984, two insurgent candidates appeared, McGovern's 1972 "New Democrat" campaign manager Sen. Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson, who was to be the first African-American to win states in a major party primary election for president. Susan Estrich's words were prophetic: the good old white boy network, including Hart, shot him down.[16]. The rules were written for a two-way contest between establishment insiders--Mondale and Kennedy, not the three-way slugfest between baby boomers, blacks, and the party Old Guard it came to be.

Insurgent candidates

The original "insurgent candidate" the Hunt Commission referred indirectly was George McGovern whom after his massive Electoral loss in 1972 was seen as anti-patriotic for his longstanding opposition to President Lyndon Johnson's War which had the effect of dividing the party, and the country, and permanently tarnished Johnson and Humphrey's[17] civil rights records, painting these two [liberal]]s for posterity as "war hawks".

George Wallace was considered a particularly unwelcome insurgent, considering he had won more states and Electors in 1968 than the party's own nominee in 1972. Wallace had sown disruption and division within the party in the 1964, 1972, and 1976 election cycles which had conflicted with the parties outreach aims culminating in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the affirmative action quotas of the McGovern-Fraser and Mikulski Commissions. Many Southern Democrats by this time already viewed themselves as persona non grata and moved to the Republicans, such as Texas Governor and presidential aspirant John Connally, and others.

Another “insurgent” was Mondale’s old boss, Jimmy Carter, who was first to recognize the new system of manipulating free television air time (and not Ronald Reagan as some believe) with early primary and caucus wins to pile up rapid delegate leads and soak up donor contributions to gain momentum. Carter had scarce contacts with old party bosses and soon buried competitors working under the old system.

It further should be noted, Lyndon LaRouche was considered by some as a viable candidate in 1980 & '84. While his ability to fundraise was impressive if not frightening to some, he never garnered more than 2% in any primary, won no delegates, nor had his name placed in nomination. LaRouche however would also fit the generic term "insurgent candidate" at that time, although his bluster never amounted to any real threat of hijacking the party.

1984 Superdelegates steal the show

In 1984 longtime party mechanic Walter Mondale entered the convention 40 delegates shy but secured the nomination with Superdelegates, a contingent of unelected party insiders he helped write into the rules two years earlier. Superdelegates include sitting and former elected officials who can bypass regular rules governing delegate selection to avoid a grassroots backlash and still enjoy a position of power, prestige, and privilege[18].

Sen. Gary Hart won 26 states and 1164 delegates at the convention.[19] Walter Mondale won 17 states and is said to have amassed about 1600 delegates. Jesse Jackson, the first African-American to win states in a major party primary, questioned the disparity between his vote total and delegate count, but even the New Left turned New Democrat, Gary Hart, echoed the DNC in poo-poo'ing Jackson's complaint[20].

By convention time Hart was beating President Reagan by 10 points in national polls, but Mondale won nomination by capturing virtually all the Superdelegates. But most scholars and historians agree Mondale lost the General Election right there and then in his Acceptance Speech by vowing to raise taxes on the American people. Even at this late date more than 30 years later it is hard to ascertain just exactly how many Superdelegate votes there were at this crooked convention. As of April 2016 Wikipedia's 1984 Democratic Primaries page does not even mention the term "Superdelegate" anywhere. Multiple original sources put the figure between 550 and 800; The Nation magazine says "roughly 700" [21] and Salon says 550 [22]. Wikipedia is silent on the matter. Whatever the result, it is patently clear the Democratic establishment was not going to let anyone other than Walter Mondale win the nomination after Sen. Kennedy forfeited[23].

One state, Wisconsin is recorded as having voted twice according to the official surviving record in primaries and caucuses under the new rules Mondale's DNC machine engineered. The official record shows Hart winning a plurality, 44% to Mondale's 41%; three days later in a highly unusual move, the "Wisconsin caucus" delivered a 54% to 29% majority (see by state to Mondale in a winner-take-all closed caucus.[24]. Wisconsin Democrats had won a ruling against the Democratic National Party in the state Supreme Court which the DNC appealed to in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin was forced to abandon 80 years of direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection (see Winograd Commission). Voters were disenfranchised, and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference.”[25]

Wisconsin Democrats sued the DNC over its efforts to enforce the undemocratic rules formulated by the Winograd Commission which targeted the 80 year old body of law behind Wisconsin's primary system, which the McGovern-Fraser compromise used to expand primaries to dozens of other states. The DNC appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, forcing Wisconsin Democrats to abandon the direct primary election of delegates and adopt a closed caucus method of delegate selection. Because the state legislature had not acted yet, "voters" became "participants" and only allowed to express a non-binding "presidential preference”[26][27], essentially disenfranchised. Fighting Bob La Follette's legacy, the founder of the Progressive movement, was completely undone.[28]

Under the original rules, Superdelegates were not supposed to "commit" to a candidate until the convention. Hart says he and his wife personally spoke with all of them to ask for their support, but virtually all were committed to Mondale for 2 years already[29].

After the Mondale-Hart debacle, another player who ran McGovern's Texas campaign, Bill Clinton, helped organize the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC). By 1992 the DLC had taken over the Democratic National Committee, but it failed to reform Mondale's rules of special privileges for party insiders. The DLC, made up originally of New Leftists, as "New Democrats" followed the view of old guard Democrats that the party had been hijacked by extremists, and the new Superdelegate structure could be used by a new generation of insiders to keep control. But the New Democrats went a step further: they sold out their leftist idealism for corporate greed.

2008 Sold to the highest bidder

While it looked like an open convention might have happened again, ultimately Hillary Clinton conceded even though she had won more popular votes than Obama at the primary ballot boxes[30] . Veteran campaign consultant Rich Galen notes it is illegal to promise a federal job in exchange for doing something or not doing something; but in a closed door negotiation it might be legal for the Obama team to ask the Clinton team, "What would it take for you to release your delegates to us?". Progressives were onto the DLC's bait-and-switch tactics, advertising liberalism to voters while feeding at the trough of its Wall Street donors.

2016 deja vu all over again

In Bernie Sanders' 25 years in Washington caucusing with the Democrats, he never once served as a Superdelegate -- not until he registered as a Democrat to seek the party's presidential nomination a few months earlier. Although he had voted for party leaders and was awarded preferential committee assignments, his absence as a Superdelegate earned him very little, if anything, from his Congressional colleagues for decades of loyalty on votes and bills. Their support overwhelmingly went to a one-term Senator, multi-millionaire, and effective fundraiser who swamped the delegates with cash donations for their own campaigns[31][32].

In New York, state law dictated a closed primary where voters had to publicly declare party affiliation. 5.3 million registered Democrats could vote for Sanders or Hillary Clinton and 2.6 million Republicans could vote for Donald Trump, John Kasich or Ted Cruz. The votes were suppressed by nearly 3 million non-affiliated independents and other party members who were denied access and shut out of the process by the rules adopted from the Winogad and Mikulski Commissions[33].

References

  1. ↑ Obama leads Clinton in giving money to superdelegates, Rob Hotakainen - McClatchy Newspapers, March 28, 2008.
  2. ↑ Not So Superdelegates, By Ari Berman Editorial, The Nation, January 31, 2008.
  3. ↑ See Broder, below.
  4. ↑ Bad blood existed between the Humphrey-Mondale and Kennedy machines going back to Hubert Humphrey's 1960 Presidential primary campaign. Humphrey later wrote of the Kennedy machine, "underneath the beautiful exterior there was an element of ruthlessness and toughness I had trouble either accepting or forgetting."
  5. ↑ Democratic party convention rule changes. academic.regis.edu . Delegates must march in lockstep.
  6. ↑ Reforming the Presidential Nomination Process, Steven S. Smith & Melanie J. Springer, p.7, below. www.brookings.edu
  7. ↑ Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden are interesting case studies; by 1980 Fonda was calling herself a "small 'd' democrat" advocating “industrial policy” and “economic democracy” while Hayden was entering the ranks of the “establishment” electoral process through the California Democratic machine. Fonda’s terminology remarkably resembles views espoused by Bernie Sanders, who also began a career in electoral politics outside the Establishment Democratic Party in the early 1980s. Fonda and Hayden became involved in the ‘save the whales’ and Greenpeace movement. By 1979 after the U.S. withdrawal from South Vietnam, the Cambodian genocide in which 2 million persons were murdered was well under way, and a popular reaction against the “anti-establishment” New Left peace movement of the 1960s took hold in the United States. Bumper stickers with slogans such as “nuke the whales” became fashionable.
  8. ↑ JANE FONDA OF THE 80'S MELLOWER BUT STILL AN ACTIVIST, By MICHIKO KAKUTANI, New York Times, March 30, 1981.
  9. ↑ See also Russia Iran Disco Suck for a summary of the popular mood in the late 1970s.
  10. ↑ Democratic party rule makers, ARNOLD SAWISLAK, UPI, Jan. 15, 1982.
  11. ↑ Democrats and Unintended Consequences, By David S. Broder, Washington Post, January 17, 1982.
  12. ↑ Estrich and Dukakis are ranking members in the Massachusetts Kennedy machine which tried to resurrect the 1960 alliance and victory with Texas Democrats on the Dukakis/Bentsen ticket.
  13. ↑ A History of 'Super-Delegates' in the Democratic Party, Elaine Kamarck, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, 2016.
  14. ↑ Democratic party convention rule changes, academic.regis.edu , above.
  15. ↑ Reforming the Presidential Nomination Process, Chapter 1 Choosing Presidential Candidates, Steven S. Smith & Melanie J. Springer, eds., Brookings Institute, 2009, pp. 4-8. www.brookings.edu . An excellent and timely synopsis.
  16. ↑ DISPARITY BETWEEN JACKSON'S VOTE AND DELEGATE COUNT VEXES PARTY, By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM, New York Times, May 20, 1984; see also New York Times on April 24, May 11, and May 24 of 1984 for articles reporting Jackson's complaint
  17. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/27/opinion/27Perlstein.html?_r=0
  18. ↑ DNC Chair Says Superdelegates Ensure Elites Don’t Have To Run “Against Grassroots Activists”, Ben Norton - Salon, Saturday, Feb 13, 2016. democraticunderground.com
  19. ↑ In a General Election, 26 states would be enough to win the Presidency under the 12th Amendment in the event of an Electoral deadlock.
  20. ↑ DISPARITY BETWEEN JACKSON'S VOTE AND DELEGATE COUNT VEXES PARTY, By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM, New York Times, May 20, 1984.
  21. ↑ Not So Superdelegates, By Ari Berman Editorial, The Nation, January 31, 2008.
  22. ↑ America’s last great convention: Mondale, Jackson & Hart dish to Salon about wild 1984 DNC, Phil Hirschkorn, Salon, Feb 15, 2015.
  23. ↑ Beating Reform:The Resurgence of Parties in Presidential Nominations, 1980-2000, Marty Cohen , David Karol, Hans Noel, Daniel Zaller, University of California Los Angelas, 9/17/01, p. 14 pdf. www.princeton.edu
  24. ↑ Progressives would say Fighting Bob LaFollette turned over in his grave.
  25. ↑ The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with an 80 year old state law and the national party's rules of delegate selection.
  26. ↑ What Is A Binding Primary Or Caucus?, MORGAN BRINLEE, February 29 2016. bustle.com
  27. ↑ The ruling did not apply to Republicans which were in compliance with state law and national party rules of delegate selection.
  28. ↑ See Democratic Party of U.S. v. Wisconsin ex rel. La Follette, ballotopedia.org
  29. ↑ Gary Hart: How Superdelegates Did Me In in '84, Interview with Jennifer Parker, ABC News, Feb. 13 2008.
  30. ↑ http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=2008&elect=1M
  31. ↑ 41 Years. $3 Billion. Inside the Clinton Donor Network, By Matea Gold, Tom Hamburger and Anu Narayanswamy, Washington Post, 19 November 2015.
  32. ↑ How Hillary Clinton Bought the Loyalty of 33 State Democratic Parties, by MARGOT KIDDER, April 1 2016, counterpunch.org .
  33. ↑ Independent voters could make polling sites a nightmare, By Marisa Schultz, New York Post, April 13, 2016.
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