January 23, 2008 03:05 AM UTC

Un-raveling the Conventions

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• by: Haners

As far back as I can remember the national conventions for Democrats and Republicans has been a “for show” event.  Meaning candidates show up, delegates “rubber-stamp” a nominee, but the underlying point is not to chose a nominee, but put a good face on the party.  To me, it seemed little more than an opportunity to dominate the news with a made for T.V. three day commercial.

Obviously this cycle looks like it could be different.  And as I discovered last week, there aren’t a lot of people who are familiar with how the process really works.  As voting got underway, we were introduced to things we haven’t had to think about before.

Take “super delegates” for instance.  All the sudden, we were thrust with the prospect of mysterious delegates that had the power to vote for whoever-regardless of who won what states.

Or 15% marks for getting support in caucuses.

Or proportional delegate allocation that could give the loser of a primary more delegates.

So I set out today to better understand how the delegate selection/convention process worked on a national level.

And since I’m a Republican, a lot of the information I found is centered around their workings.

First off, how are delegates allocated?  Between the two parties, it seems that Republicans have a pretty cut and dry method.  You get a certain amount based on congressional districts, then ten delegates just for being there, followed by extra delegates for having a Republican governor, senators, a majority in the US congressional delegation, for having majorities in the state legislature, and then some more if your state cast electoral college votes for the last Republican nominee.  You can read the whole thing here:  http://www.gop.com/images/2008…

Second thing that interested me when I discovered it is that out of all the delegates awarded to the state, only three people are automatically ensured seats at the convention.  Can you guess who they are?  Well, if you guessed “RNC committee-man, woman, and state party chair”, you are correct!  Everyone else has to get selected as a delegate one way or another…even though seats are awarded for Governor, U.S. Senator, etc.

Third, those three seats per state are the closest thing to “super-delegates” for Republicans.  There are roughly 150 or so members of the RNC, making up for roughly 6% of all the delegates.  The Democrats have a lot more “super-delegates”, making up a whole 20% of the total delegates voting at a convention.  That’s a huge chunk that’s up in the air-and it could be difficult to pin down.  But it is for this reason that endorsements from fellow Democrats could mean more than Republican endorsements.  An endorsement from a Democrat will most likely translate into delegate votes.

Lastly, Republicans chose there delegates much more differently then Democrats.  When the Democrats vote, a candidate receives delegates proportionately to their percentage total as long as they get at least 15% of the vote.  Republicans on the other hand can vary from state to state.  Some states are winner takes all, some are only winner takes all if a candidate receives a majority of the votes, others are proportional, others…well aren’t clear at all how they allocate delegates.

This is interesting stuff to me.  If you want to look into it more, go to www.uselectionatlas.org and click on “2008”.  It lists results for both parties and how states allocate there delegates.  Wikipedia also has some good information too.

2008 is shaping up to be a great year for political junkies.  Learning more about how conventions work and delegates are selected has only made this cycle all the better.

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