Reforming the Democratic Presidential Nomination Process
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…
Tags: Democrats
I agree with eliminate superdelegates, there’s something un-American about that concept.
Then I would have the primary/caucus order simply follow the order that the state joined the Union. Also, all states that once seceeded, would move to after Hawaii and be run in order of their re-admittance post Civil War.
Ooooh, good idea. Of course the South will go nuts.
I love your idea, John. I also favor the radical concept of one state, one vote or perhaps just popular vote. To do it by popular vote, though, each state would have to have a similar system.
The Delaware Plan is probably the best one out there. It involves a series of “Super Tuesdays” where states with few delegates are held early with larger states subsequently voting every few weeks. It is actually impossible to capture the nomination until the last event which would be a Primary Day involving the 3 or 4 largest states (CA, TX, NY, FL, etc.). It would literally allow all states to participate in some meaningful way.
I’ll just address the primary system:
Rotating regional primaries (perhaps six to eight), as almost-super tuesdays. This reduces expense as the Philadelphia TV stations reach NJ, DE, and some of MD, and travel, as the candidates can go to the six or eight neighboring states in the week before the regional primary far less expensively than crossing the country twice a day.
You rotate the order of the regional primaries, so no state/region always ‘gets the jump’ on the others.