Obama Camp To Propose Minimized Role For Superdelegates

Obama Looking to Diminish Superdelegates

By Dan Balz


Barack Obama's campaign will call next week for the creation of a new commission to revise the rules for selecting a presidential nominee in 2012 with a goal of reducing the power of superdelegates, whose role became a major point of contention during the long battle between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

The commission also will be urged to redraw the calendar for 2012 to avoid starting the primaries and caucuses so early, and also to look specifically at assuring more uniform rules and standards for those caucuses.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the campaign will ask the national convention delegates in Denver to approve a resolution approving the establishment of a 35-member Democratic Change Commission. The charter would authorize the Democratic National Committee chairman appoint the commission soon after the election and ask them to report back by January 2010.

The proposed changes grow out of discussions between Obama's campaign team, officials at the Democratic National Committee and representatives of Hillary Clinton's former presidential campaign, Plouffe said.

The most important change involves superdelegates -- the elected officials and party leaders who have automatic seats at national conventions and are free to vote for any candidate of their choice.

Their role became hugely controversial during the long nomination battle between Obama and Clinton. Obama supporters feared that the superdelegates could override the results of the primaries and caucuses and potentially hand the nomination to Clinton.

"The number of super delegates has gotten too large in relation to overall delegates," Plouffe said. "We want to give more control back to the voters.... Everyone thinks there ought to be more weight given to the results of the elections."

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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/08/20/obama_clinton_looking_to_dimin.html

Keep the elections out of the hands of the status quo and entrenched party members; the cigars in the back room sorta speak.