2008 Woodie Awards
Voting twice, super delegates elements of Texas primary
Adam Young
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News
"We're having a good, strong turnout," Howell said, "but I think, from the numbers I've seen, that there may be more Democrats voting because they have a highly-contested race."
Overall, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has 939 delegates to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's 245, with 1,191 delegates needed to win the party's nomination, according the AP. Texas, with an available 140 Republican delegates, is the largest remaining state for Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 primary, with Ohio's primary also on Tuesday and Pennsylvania's primary in April, among several other states.
Howell said while Texas Republicans will not vote in their precinct conventions to determine how many delegates a candidate receives, the precinct conventions are designed primarily to elect delegates to the county convention or to prepare resolutions that could become part of the state Republican platform.
Another element that could affect the presidential race beyond the Texas primary is the process of super delegates, said Craig Goodman, assistant professor of political science at Texas Tech, which the Democratic Party began using in the early 1980s.
"Part of it was to provide some peer review to the nominating process to try to bring congressional Democrats closer together with the Democratic National Committee," Goodman said, "because the Democrats had found that prior to that point, fewer than 20 percent of members of Congress were participating at the convention, and the hope was to try to bring the different interests of the party together."
Goodman said super delegates serve as a check to prevent candidates who do not have "deep roots" within the Democratic Party from winning the nomination.
"Neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama will be able to win enough delegates between now and the start of the Democratic National Convention to have the 2,025 that are necessary," he said, "and, as of now, the super delegates could potentially play a role if the nominating process goes all the way to the convention."
Overall, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has 939 delegates to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's 245, with 1,191 delegates needed to win the party's nomination, according the AP. Texas, with an available 140 Republican delegates, is the largest remaining state for Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 primary, with Ohio's primary also on Tuesday and Pennsylvania's primary in April, among several other states.
Howell said while Texas Republicans will not vote in their precinct conventions to determine how many delegates a candidate receives, the precinct conventions are designed primarily to elect delegates to the county convention or to prepare resolutions that could become part of the state Republican platform.
Another element that could affect the presidential race beyond the Texas primary is the process of super delegates, said Craig Goodman, assistant professor of political science at Texas Tech, which the Democratic Party began using in the early 1980s.
"Part of it was to provide some peer review to the nominating process to try to bring congressional Democrats closer together with the Democratic National Committee," Goodman said, "because the Democrats had found that prior to that point, fewer than 20 percent of members of Congress were participating at the convention, and the hope was to try to bring the different interests of the party together."
Goodman said super delegates serve as a check to prevent candidates who do not have "deep roots" within the Democratic Party from winning the nomination.
"Neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama will be able to win enough delegates between now and the start of the Democratic National Convention to have the 2,025 that are necessary," he said, "and, as of now, the super delegates could potentially play a role if the nominating process goes all the way to the convention."
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Melody Wainscott
Melody Wainscott
posted 3/03/08 @ 1:42 PM CST
How should a student decide whether to attend a required class that interfers with their ability to attend the caucus/precinct convention this Tuesday night? Attending the caucus is more important than ever this year for Democrats. (Continued…)
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