In a tight race, the Democratic Party's pick for presidential candidate could be decided by superdelegates -- 795 party insiders who are free to vote for anybody they want at the party's national convention. Candidates lobby for those votes fiercely, in a process that's always unfolded behind the scenes.

But now, thanks to the internet and wiki software, voters can see exactly what those superdelegates are up to, and can even try to apply a little pressure of their own.

Critics of the superdelegate process, which many think will benefit the party insider, Hillary Clinton, have created several new websites that use collaborative software to focus attention on the superdelegates, in the hope that once under a microscope, they'll resist lures like financial contributions and political quid pro quos offered by the competing campaigns.

"There is an unprecedented level of interest in superdelegates, and with this information there's an unprecedented opportunity to pressure those superdelegates however [voters] want to pressure them," says Chris Bowers, co-founder of OpenLeft, and one of the organizers of the Superdelegate Transparency Project.

The Transparency Project lets you click on a map to see which superdelegates come from your state, and who they currently support -- Clinton or Obama -- if anyone. Every Democratic member of Congress is a superdelegate automatically, and the site's most enlightening feature lets you compare whom they support with whom their constituents favor.

Representative Dennis Cardoza, of California's 18th District, for example, has pledged his vote to Hillary Clinton, while voters in his district favored Barack Obama by 3-2 in the Feb. 5 primary. The site shows scores of similar cases in which a representative's commitment is at odds with the will of his or her constituents; they include superdelegates pledged to both Clinton and Obama.

That trend is what worries 36-year-old Rick Klau, who started a similar site called Superdelegates.org, which explains the Byzantine primary voting process, and geographically maps all the superdelegates.

"As an Obama supporter, I would find it terribly distressing if he won more states and more votes and had more pledged delegates, and wasn't the party's nominee," says Klau, a manager at Google.

The 795 superdelegates make up 20 percent of the more than 3,000 Democratic party delegates: The presidential contenders need 2,025 to win. As of Thursday afternoon, Clinton had 985 pledged delegates as a result of voters' choices in primaries and caucuses, and the endorsements of 259 superdelegates. Obama had 1,116 pledged delegates and 181 superdelegate endorsements, which gives him a slight lead, according to NBC.

Not only are superdelegates free to disregard the will of their constituents; if they have them, they're also under no obligation to vote in line with the popular vote for Democratic candidate. And they can change their minds at any time up until the national convention in August.

On Thursday, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics released a report showing that Obama and Clinton have together contributed more than $900,000 to superdelegates' election campaigns in the last three years. The report showed that Obama's political action committee far outstripped Clinton's in donations. His PAC donated almost $700,000, while hers has donated almost $200,000.

MoveOn.org and the Obama camp argue that the elected delegates should vote in line with the will of their constituents. Earlier this week, MoveOn sent a note out to its 3.2 million members asking them to sign a petition to that effect. It's the first time the public has lobbied superdelegates to a convention, says Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "The public has never had reason to lobby them before."

Some congressional representatives are feeling torn between voting their own opinions as professional politicians, and voting as representatives of their districts. On Friday for example, The New York Times disclosed that Clinton endorser and civil rights leader congressman John Lewis of Georgia was reconsidering his support for Clinton because Obama had won Lewis' district.

The razor-thin margin between Obama and Clinton in the contest so far has made the superdelegates' influence a matter of intense public interest, but until recently, voters couldn't easily find the relevant information.

The blog DemConWatch, short for Democratic Convention Watch, was the first to start digging into the superdelegates. There, anonymous bloggers painstakingly compiled a list of superdelegates from press releases and statements in news articles. Site statistics show that it had 172,000 visits this week. One of the site administrators says that visitors come from the government and news agencies.

On Friday, DemConWatch announced that it is teaming up with the Superdelegate Transparency Project, a project of the progressive blogs OpenLeft and The Literary Outpost, and the staff at a Washington, D.C., nonprofit called the Sunlight Foundation. About 50 volunteers are contributing to the wiki, says Avelino Maestas, an editor at the Sunlight Foundation.

But William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a veteran of Democrat Walter Mondale's presidential campaign, thinks much of the alarm over the superdelegates' independence is unjustified.

"If one candidate has a clear and significant majority of the elected delegates, the superdelegates will not act to override that majority," he says. "They won't do it because they are political professionals and they know what acrimony and division that would create within the party."

 
Obama leading Clinton as contests get underway

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — As Democrats hold contests Tuesday in Wisconsin, Hawaii and Washington state, Hillary Clinton could use a dose of Barack Obama’s favorite thing: hope.

According to a nationwide poll of likely Democratic primary voters, the New York senator is lagging Obama by 4 percentage points. Despite that margin, cited by the Rasmussen Reports poll, Clinton still could pull off an upset in Wisconsin, some political pundits said. See full story.

Meanwhile, Republican frontrunner John McCain may mock Obama’s oft-repeated use of the word “hope” in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, but the Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll suggests McCain will need to draw on his own optimism.

Monday’s daily poll shows Obama leading the Arizona senator 46% to 43% in a hypothetical showdown of the two.

And in a face-off with McCain, Clinton lags by 7 percentage points.

Wisconsin is the last primary leading up to the March 4 contests in Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Democrats will hold caucuses in Hawaii on Tuesday, where Obama was raised as a child and is expected to win handily.

Washington also plans to finish off its selection process by holding primaries as a follow-up to the Feb. 9 caucuses.

Obama and Clinton are duking it out a day after Clinton rolled out an economic blueprint that contained ideas including a 90-day moratorium on subprime-mortgage foreclosures, ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas and providing universal health care. Clinton has talked about many of the proposals in detail since launching her campaign for the nomination. Read Clinton’s plan.

Robert Schroeder is a reporter for MarketWatch in Washington.

Family, Friends and Loved Ones Please Don’t Ignore the Super Delegate Issue.
It’s not our silence that will empower us now.

Please Please Please - Pass This On.

Repost to News and Discussion Groups to Enable
the Facts To Be Known. Tell Your Church; Your Co-Workers.

The Super Delegates are US. Folks in Michigan and Florida.
Please Each One, Take the responsibility and Teach One.

A Luta Continua, it’s time for a Change.
Vote Obama in 08′

~RE

~RE Ausetkmt
Realities Groups // BadGalsRadio.com // Trenchtones Records

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

——– Original Message ——–

Voters should decide elections, not politicians. Tell the CBC to support our vote, not undermine it.

Dear Re,

Voters in places like Atlanta,¹ Brooklyn,² St. Louis,³ and Inglewood⁴ have made it clear who their choice is for president: Barack Obama. So why are some members of the Congressional Black Caucus threatening to use their power as “superdelegates” to undermine their vote and nominate Hillary Clinton?⁵

Voters should decide elections–not politicians. And members of the Congressional Black Caucus should amplify the political voice of their constituents, not silence it. Join us in demanding that the CBC to listen to the voters. Tell them to vote with the people, not against them:

http://colorofchange.org/superd/?id=2365-436031

Voters in almost all the districts represented by the CBC have chosen Obama, helping him win more delegates than Clinton. But only some delegates vote based on the results of primaries. A fifth of the delegates that will vote at the convention — and decide the nomination — are “superdelegates” that can technically vote however they like, regardless of what the voters say.⁶ These superdelegates are members of Congress, senators, governors and Democratic party insiders. In a contest this close, they have the power to overturn the will of voters, and decide the outcome.

Representatives Jesse Jackson Jr.,⁷ John Conyers,⁸ Eleanor Holmes-Norton,⁹ and others have called for superdelegates to listen to the voices of those they claim to represent, but we need to convince their colleagues to do the same. At least 11 Black members of Congress might cast their superdelegate vote for Clinton, even though their districts voted for Obama. Many endorsed Clinton, typically before any voting had taken place. But even after their constituents showed an overwhelming preference for Obama, most are refusing to say what they’ll do as superdelegates.¹⁰

In 2000 and 2004, CBC members stood up to defend the rights of Black voters that had been disenfranchised. It would be a disgrace for its members to now undermine the votes of the Black people they represent. Rarely have Black voters across the country been so unified behind a particular candidate. If CBC members vote against their constituents, it will diminish the power of Black voters in a historic election that could result in our country’s first Black president.

It will take courage and conviction for CBC members to break with back-room politics and stand up for democracy. But we must demand it. Please join us:

http://colorofchange.org/superd/?id=2365-436031

Thank You and Peace,

– James, Van, Gabriel, Clarissa, Mervyn, Andre, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
February 19th, 2008

P.S. Here’s what Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D.C.’s Congressional Delegate) had to say about her role as a superdelegate:

As a super delegate, I decided I had to speak up now to separate myself from the idea that is afoot for the first time that super delegates, especially those who have not announced their choice, could or should decide our nominee under some circumstances. The notion that a candidate who has not earned delegates could become the Democratic nominee for president is at odds with the democratic principles of our party reforms. Super delegates were never intended to allow the return of smoked-filled room, behind the scenes selection of our candidate. I have carried a banner for a democracy of the District of Columbia too long to depart from principles of democracy within my own party.¹¹

Here’s Donna Brazile (a strategist who ran Al Gore’s campaign and has a position with the DNC):

If 795 of my colleagues [the other superdelegates] decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this.¹²

References:

1. Huckabee, Obama Celebrate Wins In Georgia, WSB-TV, 2-7-2008
http://www.wsbtv.com/politics/15212406/detail.html

2. New York Primary Results, USAToday.com
http://content.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/results.aspx?sp=NY

3. Election Summary Report, City of Saint Louis
http://www.stlelections.com/results/results-1.htm

4. California Primary Results, USAToday.com
http://content.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/results.aspx?sp=CA

5. Black lawmakers backing Obama press colleagues to heed voters, The Hill, 2-16-08
http://tinyurl.com/383bu4

6. “Superdelegate,” Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdelegate

7. “The delicate superdelegate predicament,” Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., Op-ed in the New York Times, 2-12-08
http://tinyurl.com/3c666q

8. See reference 5.

9. “Deciding Between Two Good Friends, Norton Chooses Obama,” Hotline On Call, 2-12-08
http://tinyurl.com/2hcnbq

10. See reference 5.

11. See reference 9.

12. “Democrats dreading a drawn-out, costly battle for nomination,” CNN.com, 2-8-08
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/07/dem.delegates/

Clinton hopes to end Obama surge in Wisconsin

02-18-2008, 18h21

MADISON, Wisconsin (AFP)

White House hopeful Hillary Clinton clashed with rival Barack Obama in Wisconsin Monday as she sought to regain momentum in the Democratic nomination race after a string of defeats.

On the Republican side, runaway front-runner John McCain won the endorsement of former president George Bush, a new backer who could help the maverick senator woo conservatives suspicious where his loyalties lie.

A win in Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary could give Clinton’s faltering campaign a much-needed shot in the arm before a major showdown on March 4 in Ohio and Texas, where a combined 334 delegates are at stake.

The Democratic rivals fired off television advertisements and campaigned across the Midwestern state in a tough fight for Wisconsin’s 74 delegates with the latest poll showing Obama with a narrow five-point lead over Clinton.

Obama has taken a 1,302 to 1,235 delegate lead over Clinton after winning eight straight primaries and caucuses since February 9, according to independent poll-tracker RealClearPolitics.com. At least 2,025 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination.

The Illinois senator could make it 10 in a row Tuesday by capturing Wisconsin and the caucuses in Hawaii, the Pacific island state where he was born and which is holding caucuses on the same day.

But both camps acknowledged Monday that the Wisconsin primary would be close a race.

“We expect tomorrow will be competitive,” Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters.

The Clinton campaign was similarly cautious. “Obviously we’re doing the best we can to do the best we can,” her communications director, Howard Wolfson, told reporters.

But asked about the importance of Tuesday’s primary, Wolfson said: “I do not subscribe to the momentum theory of American politics. … Voters assess candidates based on who they think will be the best candidate.”

With blue-collar workers considered a key voting bloc in Wisconsin, Clinton unveiled a 13-page “economic blueprint” to create new jobs, end the housing crisis and revive the manufacturing sector.

“We have a lot of work to do to take back our country because our economy is not working the way it needs to,” Clinton told supporters at a town-hall-type meeting in Du Pere, Wisconsin.

“It’s working for some. It’s working for the wealthy and the well connected. It’s worked quite well for them for the last seven years,” she said in St. Norbert College, taking a swipe at President George W. Bush’s policies.

While McCain secured the elder Bush’s endorsement, Obama briefly strayed from the campaign trail Sunday to visit former Democratic rival John Edwards, who has yet to endorse anyone, in North Carolina.

The Democratic rivals would welcome an endorsement from Edwards, the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee who ran a populist campaign promising to help the poor and America’s middle class.

The rival campaigns also exchanged fire on Monday, accusing each other of borrowing lines from others.

The Clinton camp, which has charged that Obama’s eloquent speeches mask a lack of substance, accused the Illinois senator of lifting words from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.

“If you’re going to talk about the value of words the words should be your own,” Wolfson said.

The Obama campaign hit back by releasing several Clinton phrases that it said he had used first.

While the Democrats slugged it out, McCain picked up the elder Bush’s endorsement, which could be crucial in his bid to woo conservatives.

“I believe now is the right time for me to help John in his effort to start building the broad-based coalition it’ll take for our values to carry the White House this fall,” Bush told a news conference alongside McCain in Texas.

The current President Bush has yet to endorse anyone, but has said he would help McCain if he won the nomination.

McCain is almost assured to win the Republican nod, but former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has refused to step aside despite trailing by hundreds of delegates.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Superdelegate" is an informal term for some of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the quadrennial convention of the United States Democratic Party.

Unlike most convention delegates, the superdelegates are not selected based on the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state. Instead, the superdelegates are seated automatically, based solely on their status as current or former elected officeholders and party officials. They are free to support any candidate for the nomination.

The Democratic Party rules do not use the term "superdelegate". The formal designation (in Rule 9.A) is "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates".^[1] In addition to these unpledged "PLEO" delegates, the state parties choose other unpledged delegates (Rule 9.B) and pledged PLEO delegates (Rule 9.C).^[1] This article discusses only the unpledged PLEO delegates.

The Republican Party also seats some party officials as delegates without regard to primary or caucus results, but the term "superdelegate" is most commonly applied only in the Democratic Party.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention the superdelegates will make up approximately one-fifth of the total number of delegates. The unforeseen and unprecedented closeness of the race between the leading contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama following Super Tuesday has focused attention on the potential role of the superdelegates in selecting the Democratic nominee, inasmuch as in the aggregate they could come to be kingmakers to a degree not seen in previous election cycles.^[2] Such an outcome would result in the first brokered convention since 1952.

From SourceWatch

edit  

The Superdelegate Transparency Project Portal

About the Superdelegate Transparency Project

The Superdelegate Transparency Project (STP) is a project of LiteraryOutpost.com, OpenLeft, DemConWatch and the Congresspedia community on SourceWatch.

The Superdelegate Transparency Project is the central gathering place for compiling primary and caucus results--Congressional district by Congressional district--for states that have to date held their races, and going forward until the Democratic nomination is secured. We are compiling the district-by-district results of the popular vote and pledged delegates, and then tracking these results against how superdelegates are currently pledged (or have publicly endorsed a candidate), and how they eventually vote. The aim of this project is to open up the Democratic nomination process, and to gauge what effect the superdelegates have on the nomination. Rather than hypotheticals at the end of this nomination process, we seek to make hard data available to all interested parties, including citizens, activists, journalists, bloggers, campaign staffers and people around the world who are following this U.S. election. This is the only project currently tracking this data at the district level.

The reporting arms of the project reside at the blogs at LiteraryOutpost, OpenLeft and DemConWatch. The participatory arm is here on the wiki at Congresspedia, where we're keeping running tallies in each state/district, who the superdelegates are, and whom they are backing. The STP is intended as a collaborative project among all interested parties to bring transparency and accountability to the Democratic National Convention by providing citizens with information on how the superdelegates could impact the outcome of the nomination.

MoveOn.org is working on their own project, and they're looking for support from people who think superdelegates should vote based on the will of the people.

YOU can help out by participating in this project - there are tasks both large and small. Full details are at the "Help out" page, including instructions on how to get assistance from the Congresspedia staff.

Media/Blogger Info Requests Please email Jennifer Nix at jennifer.nix [at] gmail.com, or call 415.913.9106.

JOIN THE BARN-RAISING Beginning Thursday, February 21, at 8 a.m. EST.

STP's (Think: Amish) "Barn-Raising"

Thanks to the work of many volunteers, much of the vote total, delegate and superdelegate information has been compiled, but considerable work still needs to be done. That's why this Thursday we're holding what we call a "barn-raising" - a day-long effort in which we're hoping that many hands can help to get the project completely up-to-date. We'd love it if you could stop by the project and help out. To add to the fun, we've set up an online chat room where you can ask questions, share ideas, and meet some of the people involved in organizing the project. CMD staff will be there, along with STP organizers including Mark Myers, Jennifer Nix and Avelino Maestas.

If you'd like to join in, visit the chat room and introduce yourself, or stop by the STP project page, where you'll find a list of things to do and other resources to get you started. We'll have people there all Thursday, beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time and continuing into the evening. Join us because it will be fun, it's important, and because democracy works abest as a participatory process.

About Superdelegates

Background on superdelegates and the presidential election:

• Superdelegates in the 2008 presidential primaries
• U.S. presidential election, 2008

What Are Political Party Delegates?

A candidate needs 2,025 delegates for the nomination. Pledged (not super delegate) delegate estimate (10 February):

• Clinton: 896
• Edwards: 26
• Obama: 922

Who Are Super-Delegates?

• Elected members of the Democratic National Committee (~450)
• Democratic Governors
• Democratic US Senators and US Representatives (including non-voting delegates)
• Distinguished party leaders (current and former Presidents and Vice Presidents; former Democratic leaders of the Senate and House; former DNC chairmen)
• Unpledged "add-on's" chosen by the DNC

Rationale For Super-Delegates

Super-delegates are designed to act as a check on ideologically extreme or inexperienced candidates. It also gives power to people who have a vested interested in party policies: elected leaders. Because the primary and caucus voters do not have to be active members of the party (in New Hampshire they can sign up and sign out going-and-coming at the polls), the super-delegate system has been called a safety-value.

Importance of Super-Delegates

The Democratic Party allocates delegates based on a state's Presidential vote in the prior three elections and the number of electors. In addition, states that hold their primaries or caucuses later in the cycle receive bonus delegates.

It has been 30 years since the Democratic Party had a cliffhanger going into the Convention. If there is no clear winner after state primaries and caucuses, then the super-delegates -- who are bound only by their consciences -- will decide the nominee.

From SourceWatch

"Superdelegate" is an informal term for some of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the quadrennial convention of the United States Democratic Party.

Unlike most convention delegates, the superdelegates are not selected based on the party primary primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state. Instead, the superdelegates are seated automatically, based solely on their status as current or former elected officeholders and party officials. They are free to support any candidate for the nomination.

The Democratic Party rules do not use the term "superdelegate". The formal designation (in Rule 9.A) is "unpledged party leader and elected official delegates".^[1] In addition to these unpledged "PLEO" delegates, the state parties choose other unpledged delegates (Rule 9.B) and pledged PLEO delegates (Rule 9.C).^[1] This article discusses only the unpledged PLEO delegates.

The Republican Party also seats some party officials as delegates without regard to primary or caucus results, but the term "superdelegate" is most commonly applied only in the Democratic Party.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention the superdelegates will make up approximately one-fifth of the total number of delegates. The unforeseen and unprecedented closeness of the race between the leading contenders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama following Super Tuesday has focused attention on the potential role of the superdelegates in selecting the Democratic nominee, inasmuch as in the aggregate they could come to be kingmakers to a degree not seen in previous election cycles. ^[2] Such an outcome would result in the first brokered convention since 1952.

Types of superdelegates

The Democratic Party rules distinguish between pledged and unpledged delegates, with the selection of the former being based on their announced preferences in the contest for the presidential nomination. In the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state, voters express their preference among the contenders for the party’s nomination for President of the United States. Pledged delegates supporting each candidate are chosen in approximate ratio to their candidate’s share of the vote. In some states, the delegates so chosen are legally required to vote for the candidate to whom they are pledged, at least on the first ballot at the convention. By contrast, the superdelegates, selected by virtue of their status as current or former elected officeholders and party officials, without regard to their presidential preferences, are all unpledged delegates. Many of them have chosen to announce endorsements, but they are not bound in any way. They may support any candidate they wish, including one who has dropped out of the presidential race. There are also "unpledged add-on delegates" selected under Rule 9.B and "pledged party leader and elected official delegates" selected under rule 9.C.

The process of selecting delegates is described here and here. To sum up, the Democratic Party's delegates fall into seven categories:

• District-level delegates
• At-large delegates
• Unpledged party-leader delegates
• Unpledged elected-official delegates
• Pledged party-leader delegates
• Pledged elected-official delegates
• Unpledged add-on delegates

Both the Democratic and Republican party have a number of state level unpledged delegates that are chosen by each state's party through convention, caucus, or state party leader vote (depending on how that particular state-party body has decided to choose them)[11]. The state level unpledged delegates tend to vote for the candidate who received the most votes from their state (although they are not required to and some state parties give them more leeway than others). Many state Republican party delegations are made up entirely of unpledged delegates which gives them the distinction "winner take all". Even with these traditions, unpledged delegates are allowed to change their vote at any time before the national convention. This is why both the Republican and Democratic parties have the potential for a brokered convention. This is far less likely for the Republican party where the traditions are more strict and there are far fewer unpledged delegates who are given a free hand.

Compare and contrast. The CNN moderator asks about Nancy Pelosi's contention that the super-delegates should follow what the pledged delegates decide at the end of the contest.

Hillary ducks it:

Well you know these are the rules that are followed. I think that it’ll sort itself out. I’m not worried about that. We will have a nominee, and we will have a unified Democratic Party, and we will go on to victory in November.

Obama reiterates his position that the super-dels will have to follow the popular vote:

Well I think it is important, given how hard Sen. Clinton and I have been working, that these primaries and caucuses count for something. And so my belief is that the will of the voters, expressed in this long election process, is what ultimately will determine who our next nominee’s gonna be.