Can someone educate me about superdelegates?

[XemaSab]

Who are they? Where do they come from? How are they chosen? :shrug:

[tritsofme]

1. From Wikipedia

The Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic presidential ticket is formally agreed upon, has 796 superdelegates. Superdelegates to the Democratic Convention include all Democratic members of the United States Congress, various additional elected officials, as well as members of the Democratic National Committee.

A candidate needs a simple majority of the combined delegate and superdelegate votes to secure the nomination. Democratic delegates from state caucuses and primaries number 3,253. This means that the total number of votes is 4,049. The total number of delegate votes needed to win the nomination is 2,025. Superdelegates account for approximately one fifth (19.7%) of all votes at the convention. Delegates chosen in the Democratic caucuses and primaries account for about four fifths (80.3%) of the Democratic convention delegates.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdelegate

[msn]

20. List of superdelegate endorsements

There's a good list of those superdelegates who have endorsed a candidate at http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/01/superdelegate-list.html">2008 Democratic Convention Watch.

[rucky]

2. They work for the League of Delegates

and each of them have special powers to fight the evil Legion of Democracy.

[Squatch]

3. Kryptonite gives them one hell of a headache.

[SteppingRazor]

4. Ahem. Superdelegates first came about after the 1968 turmoil...

when presidential candidate selection moved from the convention to the series of primaries that we know and love/hate today. The idea is that these 800 or so people can vote for whichever candidate they wat, and it's a way of keeping party bigwigs in the game. Superdelegates include all members of the DNC, all Democratic members of Congress, all Democratic governors, and a few other elected officials.

What else you wanna know? :)

[XemaSab]

6. When are we going to get rid of these tools like Terry McAuliffe?

:shrug:

[Squatch]

8. Didn't she tragically die in the Challenger explosion?

So, please...a little repsect for the deceased might be in order.

:evilgrin:

[XemaSab]

15. Oh geez....

:P

[SteppingRazor]

14. Short answer: Never.

Washington D.C. boasts more tools than Home Depot.

[goodhue]

5. Members of Congress, DNC members, and former Prez & VPs

eom

[Odin2005]

7. They are how the Establishment protects the status quo.

[SoCalDem]

9. aren;t they the 2 senators from each state? n/t

[goodhue]

13. All members of Congress, plus all DNC members, plus Carter, Mondale, Clinton, Gore

eom

[Oreo]

22. And all governors, and all former DNC chairs, speakers and Senate leaders

Goto http://demconwatch.blogspot.com for the best info

[Emit]

23. From Oreo's blog: UNPLEDGED AND PLEDGED PARTY LEADERS AND ELECTED OFFICIAL DELEGATES

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/

UNPLEDGED AND PLEDGED PARTY LEADERS AND ELECTED OFFICIAL DELEGATES


The procedure to be used for certifying unpledged party leader and elected official delegates is as follows:
Not later than March 1, 2008, the Secretary of the Democratic National Committee shall officially confirm to each State Democratic Chair the names of the following unpledged delegates who legally reside in their respective state and who shall be recognized as part of their state’s delegation unless any such member has publicly expressed support for the election of, or has endorsed, a presidential candidate of another political party;

The individuals recognized as members of the DNC (as set forth in Article Three, Sections 2 and 3 of the Charter of the Democratic Party of the United States); and,

The Democratic President and the Democratic Vice President of the United States, if applicable; and,

All Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives and all Democratic members of the United States Senate; and,

The Democratic Governor, if applicable; and,

All former Democratic Presidents, all former Democratic Vice Presidents, all former Democratic Leaders of the U.S. Senate, all former Democratic Speakers of the U.S. House of Representatives and Democratic Minority Leaders, as applicable, and all former Chairs of the Democratic National Committee.

http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/

[LSK]

10. they wear a cape?

:shrug:

[provis99]

11. Its quite simple. Its a way to dilute the votes of the Democratic masses

A horrible system, designed to ensure party bigwigs tell the Democratic party mass membership who they can have as their nominee. I expect most of the Superdelegates will support Clinton, as she's the establishment candidate.

[RB TexLa]

16. I'd bet Euros to donuts there is no way they would ever tip the nomination to someone who

did not win the most delegates.

[tritsofme]

17. If its that close (which it probably won't be) its doubtful that any candidate would win the first

ballot.

At which point all hell breaks loose.

[RB TexLa]

19. I think I'm pretty safe on the it never being that close part

:)

[pinto]

18. They are a small percentage of all delegates, their power of number is overated.

And, it's worth noting, that they include progressive, moderate and conservative Democratic Congress members, as well as *all* Democratic Governors. Hardly a monolithic ideological block, imho.

(on edit) And the "pledged" delegates are just that. Pledged to vote for the primary winner(s) in their state - whether it's a winner-take-all situation or proportional allocation of delegates. Additionally, delegate representation is required to represent the demographics of Democratic voters in each state.

[ixion]

12. They're just like you and me, except their votes count for something

where as ours don't.

[mitchum]

21. They are able to leap over tall citizens in a single bound