Wednesday, February 13, 2008

What's So Super about Superdelegates?

Don't let my lame title fool you, the role of superdelegates in an election (particularly this one) is actual quite interesting. Senator Barack Obama is currently beating Senator Hillary Clinton by a mere 42 delegates. Although Obama leads in both total delegates and the popular vote, Clinton has been far more successful in gathering pledges from super delegates.
So here is the low down on super delegates. Of the 4,049 total delegates in a primary election, 796 are called superdelegates. They consist of 270 members of congress, 32 governors, 20 distinguished leaders (like Al Gore and Bill Clinton), and 313 DNC members. The remaining spots can be filled by active democrats who apply for them. The power these super delegates have is that they are not bound to the primary results in their state and they can change their vote at any time before the national convention. This means they can be schmoozed by the Obama and Clinton campaigns...and oh have they!


Jason Rae is one of those super delegates enjoying the perks (all legal of course) such as a lunch with Chelsea Clinton. Jason is also on 21 years old! He applied to be a super delegate when he was 17 and won! Other young super delegates include the President and Vice President of College Democrats, Lauren Wolfe and Awais Khaleel.


Find out how YOU can become a democratic delegate or super delegate here.

Republicans use a different system. Learn more here.





0 comments: