What Is a Super Delegate

Unpledged Delegates Determine the Democratic Presidential Candidate

Feb 7, 2008

The Democratic Party's nominating process this year may be one of the most un-democratic processes to hit the Presidential selection cycle since Gary Hart in 1984.

Convention super delegates, appointed and unelected party loyalists, will decide the next Democratic candidate for President of the USA. With over half the nation’s states having completed their primary process after Super Tuesday, an extremely close election race has been the only outcome. Now it comes down to party bosses whose loyalties to candidates may be suspect.

If the race continues along this narrow path, super delegates will become the deciding factor. With 796 super-delegate votes available, which account for 39.3% of the delegates needed to win the nomination, the candidates are using all tools available to attract them. Jonathan Kaplan of the Maine Morning Sentinel newspaper reported Tad Devine, a Democratic political consultant who helped write the Democratic Party's nominating rules in the 1980s, said: "With two strong…candidates…we're likely to see a split. This is the first time the [super delegate] process will be tested."

The Power

In such a close race the available pledged delegates, while important, are limited. Since Michigan and Florida have been removed from the delegate count the available delegates are 4,049; leaving 3,253 pledged delegates available. Unofficial results have the current pledged delegate breakdown as:

The data indicates that approximately 1,738 delegates out of 3,253 have already been allocated. Assuming a similar result going forward, the remaining 1,515 delegates would distribute 752 for Clinton (total = 1,602) and 763 for Obama (total = 1,625.) Each candidate would be approximately 400 votes short of the 2,025 needed for the nomination – in comes the super delegates.

The Political Machine

Super delegates were to be the stabilizing force in the Democratic nominating process. “There was a belief that [the party bosses] would not want candidates who were dramatically out of sync with the rest of the party…”said Northeastern University political scientist William Mayer to Tom Curry, MSNBC national affairs writer.

But there is a problem. It gives the democratic machine – the steadfast power bosses, authority to supercede the will of the people and party base. “It is very difficult to argue,” the super-delegate system “has consequences, unintended or intended,” said Mayer. Curry wrote: “the loyalty of Democratic elected officials [in 1984]…helped Walter Mondale survive an unexpectedly strong challenge from Sen. Gary Hart….” “The super-delegates clearly gave him his majority and helped him wrap up the nomination,” Mayer said. “It’s called the Democratic Party, but one aspect of the party’s nominating process is at odds with grass-roots democracy,” Curry concluded.

Super Delegates

All of these individuals, while loyal party members, are not as robotic today as they were in 1984. Many have “pledge” their support for one candidate or another long before the primary season got underway, but they can and do change their mind.

Curry wrote: In 2004 “Dean had amassed the most super-delegates….But many had buyer's remorse and some abandoned him once he finished a weak third in Iowa….In the two weeks following the Iowa caucuses, 36 of 132 Dean's super-delegates peeled away from him; while John Kerry's tally jumped from 74 to 102.”

The fear of “jumping ship” has crept into this primary race. Time Magazine’s Karen Tumulty reported on January 5th 2008: “The scope of Barack Obama's victory…has shaken the Clinton machine down to its bolts. Donors are panicking. The campaign has been making a round of calls to reassure notoriously fickle ‘super delegates’…who might be reconsidering their decisions to back [Clinton.]”

Maybe Sam Spencer, a Portland developer and 2008 super delegate said it best. He told the Morning Sentinel: "Super delegates are sort of outdated, it's not a very democratic way of doing things."

The copyright of the article What Is a Super Delegate in US Elections is owned by Frank W. Hardy. Permission to republish What Is a Super Delegate in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

May 12, 2008 8:40 AM

Guest :

IT SEEMS TO ME THAT A DELEGATE OR SUPER DELEGATE IS SOME WHAT LIKE COMUNISUM. DEMS. VOTE BUT THEIR VOTE DOES NOT COUNT-- THE DELEGATES AND SUPER DELEGATES CAN AND DO OVER RULE THE US VOTES. THIS IS NOT THE AMERICAN WAY... I CHANGED TO THE REPUBLICAN WAY...

May 13, 2008 7:05 AM

Guest :

Your title "What is a super delegate", is not answered in the article. OK, I'm from the UK, but I still have very little idea what a super delegate is. I find this whole system confusing and your article leaves me even more confused.

Jul 16, 2008 11:37 PM

Frank W. Hardy :

The answer is in the 1st sentence of the second paragraph. "Convention super delegates, appointed and unelected party loyalists, will decide the next Democratic candidate for President of the USA."

Aug 27, 2008 6:02 AM

Guest :

the whole system is flawed, from the primarys to to the actual election. it is not the choice of the people but the politicians who decide whom they want.