Nobody seems to like super-delegates. Some even hate them. Those people generally don’t know who the super-delegates are, continuing the American tradition of hating people you’ve never even met (that may have been a bit harsh). Many people (*ahem* supporters of a very recent addition to the Party) claim that the Democratic party’s primary process is, um…undemocratic. This is due to a number of factors, but it’s mostly about super-delegates. First of all, I think to most people, super-delegates are a bit of a mystery. In fact, I would guess that for many people the whole system is a bit mysterious. So here’s a super-fast, no-frills explanation:
When you vote for a candidate in a primary, you are actually voting for a delegate—someone who has agreed to go to the convention and vote for the candidate you select. They are obligated to vote for this person during the first convention ballot (1). These are the “pledged” delegates. In the GOP system, this is all there is. In the DNC’s system, there is another kind of delegate, an “un-pledged” or “super-” delegate. These are party leaders who are free to vote for any candidate they choose, even on the first ballot. To many people this seems undemocratic, which is understandable, and, on its face, it sounds like we’re giving a few people an undue amount of power. However, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
One of the crucial elements of American government is that we aren’t a democracy. We are a republic. Individuals do not vote directly on every issue, because that would be absurd. No one has time to do that, nor interest, and we cannot possibly be experts on every issue in addition to going to work or school and having families, social lives, etc. Therefore we elect people that we trust to represent our interests, believing them to know more about the issues than we do. This is the fundamental principle of our system.
Ok so why does that matter, the superdelegates are faceless backroom political insiders wielding power that does not originate from the people because they were not elected…right? Well that is also more complex.
Let’s look into that with a quick case study. I will use Pennsylvania as an example, because at the moment, that’s where I live. I could just as easily have picked a state at random. Here are the 21 superdelegates from PA:(2)
- Richard Bloomingdale
- Brendan F. Boyle
- Bob Brady
- Matt Cartwright
- Bob Casey, Jr.
- Tony Coelho
- Ronald Donatucci
- Michael F. Doyle
- Chaka Fattah
- Penny Gerber
- Amanda Green-Hawkins
- Marcel Groen
- Gerald Lawrence
- Nancy Mills
- Ian Murray
- Michael Nutter
- Evie Rafalko McNulty
- Ed Rendell
- Marian Tasco
- Sylvia Wilson
- Tom Wolf (list from wikipedia)
The main argument against superdelegates is that they aren’t elected. Let’s examine that. While it is true that these delegates were not elected in the primary, many of them are current or former elected officials.
Tom Wolf is the Governor of Pennsylvania. Recently elected.
Several of them are members of the House of Representatives: Brendan F. Boyle for Pennsylvania’s 13th congressional district; Bob Brady from the 1st; Matt Cartwright, the 17th; Michael F. Doyle, the 14th; and Chaka Fattah from the 2nd.
Bob Casey, Jr. is a sitting Senator from PA. (The other, Pat Toomey, is a Republican.)
Sylvia Wilson is a member of the Pittsburgh school board. She was also a public school teacher for 26 years. Though she was elected in a small election, she certainly is an elected official. And “public school teacher” doesn’t exactly scream “sleazy backroom party boss.”
Ronald Donatucci is a former member of the PA House of Representatives and is currently the City of Philadelphia Register of Wills (a rather low-profile office, but elected nonetheless).
So a little over one-third of them currently hold elected office. That’s not that many, but it’s probably more than people think. Certainly the others are cigar-smoking, politics-manipulating, backroom bosses as some people are implying…well, not really. Many of them are former elected officials:
Marian Tasco just stepped down from the Philadelphia city council after 27 years. She has been on the Philadelphia City Council longer than I have been alive. Representing North Philadelphia. I challenge you not to love this woman.
Michael Nutter was the Mayor of Philadelphia from 2008 to 2016 (as if being Mayor of Philadelphia isn’t hard enough, that’s also right during the peak of the financial crisis). Elected for two terms.
Ed Rendell. Enough said….oh fine but you should really know that name. District Attorney of Philadelphia, elected for two terms. Mayor of Philadelphia, two terms. Governor of Pennsylvania two terms (term limited). See a pattern?(3)
Tony Coelho was a five-term Congressman from the California 15th and served as House majority Whip from 2 years. That’s a lot of times he’s been elected. Ok, fine, it wasn’t in PA but are you going to tell me you don’t like the man who was the primary sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the House? (Admittedly the one that eventually became Law was the Senate version, but they were identical)
Amanda Green Hawkins has served as a County Council Representative in Allegheny county (that’s the one with Pittsburg in it). She is also the Director of Civil and Human Rights for the United Steel Workers Union (see “contact information” on that page).
For those who are counting, that’s 9 who currently hold office and 5 who have held it in the past. That’s 14/21 who have at some point been elected by Democrats to represent our interests. But there’s more:
Richard Bloomingdale is the President of the AFL-CIO in PA. Not public office, but the AFL-CIO has arguably done more to promote the interests of laborers than any other organization. We Democrats rather like them, and we certainly need their support.
Evie Rafalko McNulty has had many roles in the PA Democratic party, serving on myriad boards and committees. Recently appointed to PA Commission on Women.
Nancy Mills is the Chair of the Allegheny Democratic committee. Ok so yeah a bit of a party boss. A party boss who is a lifelong Democrat and has worked diligently to get qualified candidates elected. She has taken a special interest in encouraging women to run for public office (something this government desperately needs!).
The remaining delegates are a lot closer to the party leaders some are imagining and information on them is a bit scarce. Marcel Groen is the chair of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party (casually “PA Dems”), Ian Murray appears to be a Lawyer and longtime DNC member, the same goes for Gerald Lawrence. Penny Gerber is sometimes reported as the vice chair of the PA Dems, but isn’t on their website. That remains a bit of an open question.
These are the superdelegates in Pennsylvania. They certainly wield a significant amount of power in the party, but I think it helps to remember that they are real people: many of them elected officials, all of them loyal Democrats.
I am not here to argue that the DNC’s system is perfect or has no bias. I do not mean to say that the super-delegate system is totally fair and democratic. It’s not. But no system is perfect. I just want to humanize them a bit and maybe get people thinking about them as people as well as abstract concepts.
I leave you with these parting thoughts:
In 2008 when it became clear that Barack Obama had a clear mandate, super-delegates pledged support for him, some even switching away from Hillary. They tend not to decide against the public. And it would take a large conspiracy to take the nomination away from a candidate with a strong lead. Nate Silver talks about it more here.
If the GOP had super-delegates, they would be in a much better position to stop Trump from hijacking their party with plurality wins.(4)
Representative John Lewis is a super-delegate.(5)(6)
Finally, I concede that these people are members of the so-called “Democratic establishment.” I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I like the Democratic Party and I’m damn proud to be a Democrat. To the fiery supporters of that candidate: if your guy doesn’t like the DNC’s system and thinks that the Democratic Party is so fundamentally corrupt, he shouldn’t have run as a Democrat. As long as he is, he has to put up with the party rules.