Main Page
From SuperDelegates.org
Contents |
[edit] SuperDelegates.org
This site is designed to help you learn more about the 796 DNC Super Delegates who will vote in the 2008 Democratic National Convention. This site is not affiliated with the Democratic National Committee, or any campaign. It is a work in progress, and you can help! See the FAQ for more info on how to contribute. We depend on your contribution.
Super Delegates (see below for more info) get to cast a vote for the nominee at the 2008 Convention, and are not obligated to vote for the candidate who won their state. For that purpose, we want to track which candidate the delegates have endorsed to get an idea of how they would vote at the convention.
- Full list - Full list of super delegates.
- Super Delegates by Endorsement - A list of delegates broken down by who they currently support.
We want this site to be comprehensive, and you can help us by adding biographical data to a delegate's page, linking to a press release announcing the delegate's endorsement, and including the general location of the delegate so that we can view the info on Google Maps and Google Earth. If you would like to contribute to this wiki (what's a wiki?), find a page where you have additional information, click "edit" and enter in your info. That's it! With your help, this site will be a useful resource of information about the DNC Super Delegates who may very well influence the 2008 Democratic nominee for President.
SuperDelegates.org Featured on CNN:
If you'd like to contribute to this site, please see the FAQ for some details about how to easily update the site.
[edit] The Super Delegates
How the Super Delegates are selected. This section describes how the individuals who are Super Delegates were, or are, identified and selected.
Super Delegates include:
- Democratic members of Congress
- Democratic Senators
- Democratic governors
- Members of the Democratic National Committee
- Former Democratic presidents and vice-presidents
- Former Speakers of the House
- Former Senate leaders
- Former minority leaders in the House or Senate
- Former chairs of the Democratic National Committee.
[edit] The History of the Democratic Party Superdelegate
As the Democratic Party increased their use of primaries and caucuses to select delegates during the 1960s and 1970s, intra-party criticism continued that some control of the nomination process should remain among party elites. Although the McGovern-Fraser reforms insured significant primary delegate representation by the 1972 National Convention, Democrat presidential defeats in '72 and 1980, and the surprise success of then-outsider-candidate Jimmy Carter's nomination in 1976, increased discussion for more party leader control.
Between the 1980 and 1984 conventions, The Hunt Commission submitted reforms to the DNC that called for party leaders to become voting delegates, not just nonvoting attendees per McGovern-Fraser. Then-Governor Jim Hunt (D-NC) led the Commission, which was charged to "give party professionals and elected officials an enhanced role at the conventions." The DNC-Hunt Commission negotiations led to making voting delegate spaces available for "core" elected officials from each state - including Governors, US House members and US Senators, state party officials, and mayors of larger cities. These PLEOS and/or other superdelegate slots - as determined by each state party - were formed in time for the '84 convention, and have been in place since. [1]
[edit] View on Google Maps or Google Earth
- View the Super Delegates on Google Maps.
- With the Google Earth client installed, you can view the Super Delegates as a layer on Google Earth.
[edit] The Democratic Delegate Process
Officially referred to as "unpledged" or "Party Leaders and Elected Official (PLEO) Delegates" in the party bylaws, these delegates will attend the convention as members of their home state delegation and will get to cast a vote for the nominee of the party. Not all PLEOs are superdelegates. In New Mexico, for example, PLEOs are pledged delegates in line with statewide preference at the caucus.
Nothing in the bylaws requires the so-called "Super Delegates" to declare a candidate preference ahead of the convention, and nothing prohibits them from changing their mind once they declare such a preference. For more on the Super Delegates process, Josh Marshall at TalkingPointsMemo.com did a good job explaining how this works:
