Super Delegate ? how are they chosen

[HelenWheels]

Not the elected officials but those that hold no office. I was asked to vote for someone so they could retain their super delegate position.

I wrote to one of the super delegates out of Wisconsin about the fact that regular delegate go to the convention carrying their vote for thousands of voters while his vote represents only his choice (in addition to the vote he casts in the primary).

This is the answer I got back from one of the DNC super delegates:

Thanks for this email as well. What I mean when I suggest that my superdelegate vote is equal to a regular delegate vote is that at convention my vote is weighted the same as any other vote. I don't have a larger say than any one individual.

I appreciate your request to vote with the Wisconsin primary preference, but I'll be honest with you, Jxxx, I just cannot commit to that. I think that the nice thing about being unpledged is that I am able to decide with my own heart and my own personal judgment who I think would be the best fit for the future of the party. I really think that each person should be entitled to make up the choice for him/herself. Each person who runs for a regular delegate spot is running to represent the candidate of his/her choice and I feel that as a superdelegate, I should be also be given an opportunity to support the candidate of my choice.

Now then then argument is brought up that superdelegates will decide this election. I don't think this will be the case at all. It has not happened since superdelegates were created and I don't think it will. I am expecting a party nominee by April 22.

Please let me know your thoughts. I really do appreciate your input.


I find it very frustrating that we could work our way through these primaries and end up with no choice at all.

[demokatgurrl]

1. They are elected officials and party honchos

A somewhat informative article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/opinion/15mann.html?scp=3&sq=superdelegates&st=nyt

[crispini]

2. They are DNC members, mostly.

By and large, these are people who have spent a long time serving the party in various capacities. I personally know a couple of DNC members and the time these people send on party issues is amazing. I have no problem with the superdelegates.

It takes a lot of work to keep the party going and the people who are superdelegates have contributed a lot over the years. Everyone who is bitching about the superdelegates needs to get off their ass and participate in the party in any capacity. Become a precinct chair, join a club, run for DNC member, anything.

[Mabus]

3. Link to a lot of information about the superdelegates: who they are, who they are endorsing, etc.

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegate-list.html

[LiberalFighter]

4. Super Delegates consist of the following:

Current Democratic Governors (Elected by state) (31)
Includes American Samoa territorial Governor
District of Columbia Mayor (1)
Puerto Rico Governor
Virgin Islands Governor

Current Democratic Senate Members (Elected by state) (49)
Includes District of Columbia "Shadow" Senators (2)

Current Democratic House Members (Elected by congressional district) (233 might be more if special elections held in time)
Includes American Samoa House Delegate
District of Columbia House Delegate
Guam House Delegate
Puerto Rico House Delegate
Virgin Islands House Delegate

Distinquished Party Leaders as follows:
Current and former Democratic Presidents and Vice-Presidents (Carter, Mondale, Clinton, Gore)
Former Democratic leaders of the Senate and House including Speaker of the House (Mitchell, Daschle, Gephardt, Wright, Foley)
Former DNC chairs (Harris, Andrew, McAuliffe, Romer, Strauss, Wilhelm)

AND
Democratic National Committee Members (Approximately 450 elected)

These elected DNC are primarily elected at state conventions by elected state convention delegates. They also include from what I could tell the state party chair and vice chair in each state or territory. That is probably about 106. Each state has at least a committee woman and committee man. There are also at-large members.


These elected DNC committee members could realistically number in the thousands if they didn't limit representation. For example, Indiana could have over 368 delegates if they included all Democratic county officers.