Reforming the Democratic Presidential Nomination Process

Unstable Isotope

15 years ago

Steve Benen at Washington Monthly reminds us that even though this is a non-election year, there is a lot of work going on behind the scenes.

IF I EVER HEAR THE WORD ‘SUPERDELEGATE’ AGAIN…. The current system the major political parties use to nominate presidential candidates has very few defenders. The process is, by any reasonable measure, a frustrating mess, and every cycle or so, party officials get together to try to make the system function in a less painful way.

It was just over one year ago that Barack Obama became the presidential nominee from the Democratic Party. Just reading the word “superdelegate” brings back painful memories of the nomination battle with its PUMAs, Michigan and Florida clusterf*#ks and other assorted cast of characters.

I would certainly like to see the Democratic Party nomination process become more democratic. So, what would you propose to make the system better?

Some of my ideas…

Get rid of superdelegates. In fact, I would like Democratic officeholders to be as little intrusive as possible.

Break the Iowa/New Hampshire strangehold on the nomination process.

As far as primary or caucus goes, I think that should be left up to each state to decide.

I would like to see a process that lets as many states as possible have a say in the nomination, and I would like to see an end of the race to be the first state to hold a primary. Shouldn’t all states have an equal voice?