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Feb

9

List of Ohio’s 20 superdelegates; Brazile, Bowers promise to quit Democratic party


The Plain Dealer provides an extended look at the superdelegate element of the presidential nominating process, an element unique to the Democratic party. [A note on the definition of "Superdelegate": "The Democratic Party’s official rules do not use the term "superdelegate". The formal description (in Rule 9.A) is "party leaders and elected officials".]

Included in the post is this list of who they are:

Sen. Sherrod Brown, Avon
Gov. Ted Strickland, Columbus
Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Cleveland
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Cleveland
Rep. Tim Ryan, Niles
Rep. Zack Space, Dover
Rep. Betty Sutton, Copley Township
Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Toledo
Chris Redfern, party chairman, Catawba Island
Rhine McLin, Dayton mayor
Bill Burga, ex-president Ohio AFL-CIO, Westerville
Enid Goubeaux, ex-Darke County party chair, Greenville
Sonny Nardi, Ohio Teamsters, Broadview Heights
Rep. Charlie Wilson, St. Clairsville
State Rep. Joyce Beatty, Columbus
Mark Mallory, Cincinnati mayor
Ron Malone, ex-Ohio Director of AFSCME United, Columbus
Pat Moss, ex-president of AFSCME Council 8, Johnstown
–Two more super delegates will be chosen in May

Donna Brazile was quoted as saying, “If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this,” Brazile said.

And Chris Bowers of Open Left wrote this post, How I Could Quit the Democratic Party, that makes the same argument. (speaking of democratic anything, Open Left crashed Firefox twice – what’s with that?)

What do I think of these protestations?
I’m not a student of political history, so for now, the best I can offer is this Wikipedia review of how the superdelegate element came into being.  According to the entry, it wasn’t implemented until 1980.  So presidential races of 1980, 84, 88, 92, 96, 2000 and 2004 have operated with the system in place.

Comments like, “I will quit the party” are, of course, dramatic and are intended to be dramatic.  They represent passion and displeasure at the same time and, given who says the words, have largely a symbolic existence.  Who is saying these words?  Very serious partisans.

But what about in the past? There have now been seven presidential races in which superdelegates existed. Some questions I have, which may very well have answers that I just don’t know, would be:

1. Was the system’s creation contentious to begin with?

2. Have there already been efforts to dismantle the system – and how much support have those efforts had?

3. Do people really feel that returning to a system that lacks a superdelegate feature would be preferable, overall, in perpetuity?

4. Are there other mechanisms through which the pros of superdelegates can be retained and the cons can be jettisoned?

Institutions, organizations face these kinds of situations all the time.  And the risk that they take with instituting a system that could lead to a situation that is now being decried by some as patently undemocratic was apparent at the time of the adoption of the system.  And people went forward with it anyway.  And now, that situation is here.  They knew – now live with it.

I say this as someone who has been intimately involved in the redrafting of a constitution for a 150 year old organization.  We’ve tried for almost three years to create a new venue through which powerful, long-serving individuals in the organization could contribute without having a disproportionately powerful hand in issues that come to votes – because the size of this group of individuals and their relative level of involvement in the organization is disproportionately large and rare, respectively, compared to the overall membership of the organization.

In general, we could not have been met with more resistance.  Over and over, we would recite how powerful this group will be able to be and will only grow in strength for a variety of reasons, and still, they refused to give up the power and position they believe they’ve earned and deserve.

The day hasn’t yet arrived when that power has been used, full force, but the organization has chosen to risk that possibility, rather than upset the current system.

When the Democrats instituted the superdelegate rule, they made choices too.  And if current Democrats want to make changes because they no longer like what those choices wrought, then they have to go through whatever the party went through when the superdelegate concept was instituted.

But until then, to talk about, to threaten, I will quit the Democratic party – nice sound bite, makes us know you’re serious. But, seriously, it’s irresponsible, given what we, as Democrats, might be facing in the general election.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:42 am February 9th, 2008 in Barack Obama, Campaigning, Elections, Government, Hillary Clinton, Ohio, Politics, Primary, Voting, WH2008 

Comments

7 Responses to “List of Ohio’s 20 superdelegates; Brazile, Bowers promise to quit Democratic party”

  1. 1 Carole Cohen on February 9th, 2008 11:40 am

    Not surprised you were met with resistance; and not liking the idea of pseudo powerful elected officials determining outcomes. I’ve never liked super delegates. Having said all this I can’t imagine it’s easy to get rid of the system. Kind of like Congress voting pay hikes for themselves when the rest of us suffer. Vested interest in power almost more important than money.

  2. 2 ohdave on February 9th, 2008 1:08 pm

    Not a big fan of Donna Brazile, but I support her position on this. Good for her.

  3. 3 Jill Miller Zimon on February 9th, 2008 2:49 pm

    Carole – I think you are exactly right – to willingly give up power is a very difficult thing – people do do it, we see great examples of it (Warren Buffet giving his money to the Gates Foundation). But you are right – it isn’t easy – and people need to feel that they can trust that it will be well-used. So maybe it all boils down to trust?

  4. 4 Jill Miller Zimon on February 9th, 2008 2:50 pm

    Dave – I think the position has great value and I was just commenting elsewhere that Brazile has the heft behind her to make this issue matter. But I’d like to sense that there are some concrete steps going on to address the problem – all I’ve read so far is outrage about it.

  5. 5 Trips on February 10th, 2008 1:04 am

    The organizational insight is appreciated, thanks for writing on this. Just a good damn post. I’m with ohdave on DB, and your “I’d like to sense that there are some concrete steps going on to address the problem”. I’ve been almost conditioned not to get my hopes up with the Democratic party, but I’ll raise my glass to another try.

  6. 6 Jill Miller Zimon on February 10th, 2008 11:28 am

    Thanks for visiting and commenting, Trips.

  7. 7 Jeffrey P. on February 27th, 2008 2:36 pm

    Have you guys seen this superdelegate spoof video? He, he,
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSYOqXV-TeM

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