Big Ideas in Politics: Superdelegates

This semester, we'll be paying special attention to the big ideas at play in the ongoing presidential campaign. The coverage of this campaign has been intensive without managing to be exhaustive. One of the benefits of the intensity of the coverage and the unprecedented length of this campaign has been the light it has shed on the small but sometimes pivotal fine print rules of the American electoral process.

Today's New York Times has an article explaining one of those rules that might end up playing a key role in deciding who ends up getting the Democratic party's nomination: the rule that covers superdelegates:

Not all Democratic presidential convention delegates are awarded like door prizes in the primaries and caucuses being so fiercely contested around the country.

National party rules give special status to a select political group, including members of Congress, governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, past party officials, and former elected leaders like Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter and their vice presidents, Al GoreWalter F. Mondale. and

Officially designated unpledged party leader and elected official delegates, members of this high-powered group are usually known by a catchier term: superdelegates.

If the primary season does not settle the nomination fight and it turns into a hunt for individual delegates, it is conceivable that this group of politicians and party insiders could hold the balance in awarding the nomination.

READ MORE