Democrats Might Have a Good Idea for Once in Their Lives
The Democrats, a party chronically short on good ideas, seem to have finally stumbled across one: getting rid of superdelegates altogether.
BuzzFeed reported Thursday night about a proposal circulating within the party that would go beyond what the Unity Reform Commission, formed by Clinton and Bernie Sanders to review the party’s nomination process, had recommended. That group had proposed cutting the number of superdelegates by about 60%, with party elites remaining “unpledged”—or able to vote for whoever they want at the convention—and the other roughly 450 superdelegates bound to vote based on the will of the voters.
But now some Democrats are saying that’s not enough. From BuzzFeed:
In the weeks since the final Unity Reform Commission meeting, Democrats have considered going a step further — eliminating superdelegates altogether in the main convention vote.
The idea became a subject of debate here this week at a DNC meeting, where members of the Rules and Bylaws Committee engaged in a lengthy, granular back-and-forth on Thursday over language to either “reduce,” “substantially reduce,” or “eliminate” superdelegates.
“‘Reduce’ covers ‘elimination,’” said Leah Daughtry, one member of the committee. “It would give us enough elbow room, enough latitude, to get to zero — if that’s what we want to get to.”
This proposal is being taken up by the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee, where its fate remains unclear. As BuzzFeed reported, one DNC member from California, Bob Mulholland, circulated a memo calling the idea “absurd and undemocratic.”