Friday, February 15, 2008

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Super-Delegate!

Grumblings and petitions and angry posts about Democratic Party super-delegates are popping up all over the blogosphere. Democrats who work in the trenches and show up at meetings and cast votes in primaries are concerned that these odd creatures, super-delegates, will swoop into the national convention in August and negate all our hard work.

We have four SD's in Wyoming (correction 2/17: there are five). Governor Dave Freudenthal is one; another is state party chair John Millin. The others are (corrected 2/17) Pete Jorgensen, Cynthia Nunley, and Nancy Drummond. They are being courted by both the Obama and Clinton camps. What they're supposed to do is wait until the convention, determine the will of the Wyoming delegation, and then support that by casting their votes accordingly. Will that happen? Who knows. Some media outlets, such as CNN, are throwing super-delegate counts into their delegate numbers for Clinton and Obama. A petition is circulating urging CNN to stop that.

Another petition is over at moveon.org. It's designed to become a paid ad in USA Today. Here's the wording of the petition:

Hi, you've probably heard about the "superdelegates" who could end up deciding the Democratic nominee.The superdelegates are under lots of pressure right now to come out for one candidate or the other. We urgently need to encourage them to let the voters decide between Clinton and Obama—and then to support the will of the people. I signed a petition urging the superdelegates to respect the will of the voters. Can you join me at the link below?http://pol.moveon.org/superdelegates/?r_by=12150-1460962-nGQYmh&rc=comment_paste. Thanks!

I think all of the SD hubbub is another exciting aspect of an already stimulating election season. I am a bit paranoid that super-delegates could screw things up. Let's face it -- Dems are good at that, especially during presidential years. So be vigilant, fellow Democrats, and keep an eye on your own state's designated SD's. Chat with them, drop them notes, and tell them to butt out until August in Denver.

4 comments:

jhwygirl said...

Pete Jorgensen looks like he's made up his mind. http://www.jhnewsandguide.com/article.php?art_id=2749

Don't know if you caught that....but it surprised me (a former JH resident).

Michael Shay said...

I did see that news item about Jorgensen. He was in Cheyenne this morning at the grand opening of the Obama office.

jhwygirl said...

He's a great guy. I guess I consider myself in the camp that the superdelegates should vote with the popular vote in their state.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that if Obama is at the top of the ticket, there's a major sweep of Democratic candidates...and he articulates that in the JHNews&Guide piece. At least he's not doing what he himself solely wants - he's voting how he sees whom will benefit The Cowboy State the best.

Michael Shay said...

As Pete spoke, you could see his passion on the subject. By the way, I had to correct this article, as we have five super-delegates and not four. It's tough to keep up on this topic.