By Mike Matejka
An issue sure to surface at the July Democratic convention is super-delegates. Hillary Clinton is now the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee, but she needed those super-delegates to finalize her nomination. There are 719 super-delegates going to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July.
Why are there super-delegates? After the 1968 riotous Democratic convention in Chicago, where Hubert Humphrey won the Presidential nomination, there was loud protest because Humphrey had not run in a single primary. At that time only a limited number of states held primaries, most convention delegates were selected by the state party. Senator George McGovern led a committee after the 1968 convention, establishing rules for 1972. Those rules mandated state primaries or caucuses to democratically elect delegates. McGovern then won the majority of those grass-roots delegates, but lost the Presidential election. Jimmy Carter used this system in 1976 to launch himself as the Presidential winner, but lost in 1980.
After Carter’s defeat, the Democratic Party went back to the drawing board, and came up with the super-delegate system to allow Governors, members of Congress and party leaders a voice at the convention. Super delegates include Democratic National Committee members, chairs and co-chairs of state Democratic Parties, members of Congress, Governors and what are called “distinguished former officials.” Over half of the super-delegates come from the Democratic National Committee and the state organizations.
Almost all of these super-delegates have lined up to support Hillary Clinton; Bernie Sanders supporters are calling this undemocratic and want the super-delegates abolished. There’s sure to be a floor fight over this issue, unless some compromise satisfies Sanders’ supporters. But if there is a compromise, those will be the rules for the 2020 election, not this year.
Should super-delegates exist? If someone has been elected to Congress or as a Governor, I think their having won a popular election should guarantee them a convention seat. The issue might come down to the automatic inclusion of the Democratic National Committee and state chairs.
The American election process is never straight-forward and our democracy, particularly at the Presidential level, is complex. The whole process of caucuses and primaries, with each state having different rules, is very confusing. Stay tuned in July; the Democratic Convention issue might not be who is the candidate, but intensive votes and fights over super delegates and the party platform.
Mike Matejka is the Governmental Affairs director for the Great Plains Laborers District Council, covering 11,000 union Laborers in northern Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. He lives in Normal. He served on the Bloomington City Council for 18 years, is a past president of the McLean County Historical Society and Vice-President of the Illinois Labor History Society.
The opinions expressed within WJBC’s Forum are solely those of the Forum’s author, and are not necessarily those of WJBC or Cumulus Media, Inc.
