2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries: Difference between revisions

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Template:Future election in the United States The 2008 Democratic primaries will be the selection process by which the Democrats choose their candidates in the 2008 election for President and Vice President of the United States through a series of primaries and caucuses culminating in the 2008 Democratic National Convention, to be held from Monday, August 25, through Thursday, August 28, 2008, in Denver, Colorado.

Candidates

Barack Obama, U.S. Senator from Illinois (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 16
Current Candidate
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator from New York and former First Lady (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 15
Current Candidate
John Edwards, former U.S. Senator from North Carolina and 2004 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 14
Current Candidate
Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico, former U.S. Representative from New Mexico, and former United States Ambassador to the UN (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 0
Current Candidate
Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Representative from Ohio (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 0
Current Candidate
Mike Gravel, former U.S. Senator from Alaska (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 0
Current Candidate
Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware (Campaign Article, Campaign Site)
Pledged Delegates: 0
Withdrew 1/3/08
Christopher Dodd, U.S. Senator from Connecticut (Campaign Site),
Pledged Delegates: 0
Withdrew 1/3/08

Dates and representation

Democratic candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election will campaign for the nomination from their party in a series of primary elections and caucus events. They will take place in four phases. The numbers in parenthesis are the total number of votes given to the delegation that will represent that jurisdiction at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. For the 50 states and the District of Columbia this number is equal to the number of delegates, but a set number of votes has been allotted for each other group given representation that may not be equal to the number of delegates sent.

Phase one: endorsements

235 Democratic House members and nonvoting delegates, 49 senators, the District of Columbia's two shadow congresspeople and 28 governors, a total 314 in all, are automatically delegates to the convention. These "superdelegates," almost 16 percent of the 2,025 delegates (4,049 total) a candidate will need to secure the party's presidential nomination, while officially uncommitted and thus "unreplaceable", can publicly endorse a candidate, adding to his and her total. As of January 5, 2008, the totals were: Hillary Clinton 154; Barack Obama 50; John Edwards 33; Bill Richardson 19; Dennis Kucinich 1. In addition, all members of the Democratic National Committee are automatically delegates, and there are a small number of distinguished party leaders and other unpledged delegates, leading to a total of 852 unpledged delegates.

Phase two: January

Voters select delegates in primaries and caucuses through the country. Pledged delegates reflect the preferences of the voters, but are not actually legally bound to vote for the candidate they are pledged for. However, since candidates may remove delegates whom they feel may be disloyal, pledged delegates generally vote for the candidate they represent.^[1]

The following elections are scheduled or expected.^[2]

Details			Delegates						Estimated Pledged Delegates ^[3]
Date	State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	PLEO Delegates^[4]	Pledged Delegates^[5]	Unpledged Delegates	Voting Delegation Size	Hillary Clinton	John Edwards	Barack Obama
January 3, 2008	Iowa^[6]	caucus	29	10	6	45	11	56	15	14	16
January 8, 2008	New Hampshire	primary^[7]^[8]	14	5	3	22	8	30
January 15, 2008	Michigan	primary	83	28	17	128	29	0
January 19, 2008	Nevada	caucus^[9]	16	6	3	25	8	33
January 26, 2008	South Carolina	primary^[10]	29	10	6	45	9	54
January 29, 2008	Florida	primary	121	40	24	185	25	0

February 5 Controversy

Under Democratic National Committee rules, no state may hold their primaries or caucuses before February 5 with the exceptions of Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist (R) violated Democratic party rules in signing a bill on May 21, 2007, to up the date of his state's primary causing a chain reaction which moved many other states' primaries and caucuses to much earlier dates. Accordingly, the Democratic National Committee has ruled that Florida's delegates will not be seated, or, if seated, will not be able to vote, at the National Convention. Furthermore, the DNC has also stated that it will forbid any candidate from receiving delegates should they campaign in the Florida primary.^[11] The DNC Rules Committee met on August 25, 2007 and ruled that Florida would have 30 days to move its primary date at least 7 days later than the current date of January 29, or else lose all of its delegates in the Democratic primary. Florida officials said they may challenge the ruling on legal grounds and protest the 2008 convention; additionally, the actual implementation of such a decision might prove to be difficult.^[12]

Michigan has moved its primary to January 15, also in violation of party rules. On December 1, the Democratic National Committee voted to deny Michigan’s request to hold its primary on January 15 and declared that Michigan’s delegates will not count in the nominating contest unless Michigan moves its primary to a later date.

Phase three: Super Tuesday

Since the beginning of 2007, many states have moved, or are discussing plans to move, the dates of their primaries or caucuses up to February 5. The nation's first quasi-"national primary" may very well take place on that day. This has also been dubbed, among other names, "Super Duper Tuesday"^[13] and "Tsunami Tuesday"^[14]. A total of 1,688 delegates will be pledged by the results of the February 5th votes.

Details		Delegates
State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	PLEO Delegates	Pledged Delegates	Unpledged Delegates	Voting Delegation Size
Alabama	primary	34	11	17	52	8	60
Alaska	caucus	8	3	2	13	5	18
American Samoa	primary		3		3	10	13
Arizona	primary	37	12	7	56	11	67
Arkansas^[15]	primary	22	8	5	35	12	47
California^[16]	primary	241	81	48	370	71	441
Colorado^[17]	caucus	36	12	5	55	16	71
Connecticut^[18]	primary	33	11	6	48	13	61
Delaware	primary	10	3	2	15	8	23
Democrats Abroad	primary		6	1	7	4	11
Georgia^[19]	primary	57	19	11	87	17	104
Idaho^[20]	caucus	12	4	2	18	5	23
Illinois	primary	100	33	20	153	32	185
Kansas	caucus	21	7	4	32	8	40
Massachusetts	primary	61	20	12	93	28	121
Minnesota^[18]	caucus	47	16	9	72	16	88
Missouri	primary	47	16	9	72	16	88
New Jersey	primary	70	23	14	107	20	127
New Mexico	caucus	17	6	6	26	12	38
New York^[21]	primary	151	51	30	232	48	280
North Dakota	caucus	8	3	2	13	8	21
Oklahoma	primary	25	8	5	38	9	47
Tennessee	primary	44	15	9	68	17	85
Utah	primary	15	5	3	23	6	29
Total	-	-	-	-	1688	-	2088

Phase four: The rest of the race

If no one has clinched the nomination by the 5th, the remaining primaries will determine the nomination.

February

Details			Delegates
Date	State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	PLEO Delegates	Pledged Delegates	Unpledged Delegates	Voting Delegation Size
February 9, 2008	Louisiana	primary	37	12	7	56	12	68
February 9, 2008	Nebraska^[22]	caucus	16	5	3	24	7	31
February 9, 2008	Washington	caucus^[23]	51	17	10	78	19	97
February 9, 2008	U.S. Virgin Islands	primary		3		3	6	9
February 10, 2008	Maine	caucus^[24]	16	5	3	24	10	34
February 12, 2008	District of Columbia	primary	10	3	2	15	22	37
February 12, 2008	Maryland	primary	46	15	9	70	29	99
February 12, 2008	Virginia	primary	54	18	11	83	20	103
February 19, 2008	Wisconsin	primary	48	16	10	74	18	92
February 19, 2008	Hawaii	caucus	13	4	3	20	9	29

March

Details			Delegates
Date	State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	PLEO Delegates	Pledged Delegates	Unpledged Delegates	Voting Delegation Size
March 4, 2008	Ohio	primary	92	31	18	141	20	161
March 4, 2008	Rhode Island	primary	13	5	3	21	11	32
March 4, 2008	Vermont	primary	10	3	2	15	8	23
March 4, 2008	Texas^[25]	primary caucus hybrid^[26]	126	42	25	193	35	228
March 8, 2008	Wyoming	caucus	7	3	2	12	6	18
March 11, 2008	Mississippi	primary	22	7	4	33	3	36

Post-March

Details			Delegates
Date	State	Type	District Level Delegates	At-Large Delegates	PLEO Delegates	Pledged Delegates	Unpledged Delegates	Voting Delegation Size
April 22, 2008	Pennsylvania^[27]	primary	96	33	20	151^[28]	30	181
May 3, 2008	Guam	primary		3		3	5	8
May 6, 2008	Indiana	primary	43	14	9	66	13	79
May 6, 2008	North Carolina^[29]	primary	59	20	12	91	19	110
May 13, 2008	West Virginia	primary	17	6	3	26	11	37
May 20, 2008	Kentucky	primary	31	10	6	47	8	55
May 20, 2008	Oregon	primary	31	11	6	48	14	62
June 1, 2008	Puerto Rico	primary	33	11	7	51	7	58
June 3, 2008	Montana	primary	10	3	2	15	8	23
June 3, 2008	South Dakota	primary	9	3	2	14	8	22

Delegate selection rules

Under the Democratic Party's Delegate Selection Rules, delegates are awarded by proportional representation, with a minimum 15 percent threshold required in order to receive delegates. Each state party is required to publish its own state level delegate selection plan and take public comment. The plans indicate how each state will select delegates at the congressional and statewide level, how the delegation will implement the party's affirmative action policy, and how the delegation will ensure an equal balance between women and men. Those plans were adopted at state conventions and forwarded to the national party in mid-2007.

In caucuses, the viability threshold (15 percent or higher depending on the caucus) must be met at each level in the process, from the precinct level upwards. Thus, it is to the interest of the candidates that meet the threshold to woo the votes of the caucus-goers for candidates that did not meet the threshold.^[30]^[31] The focus on viability is designed to weed out small, divisive factions from gaining delegates to disrupt the national convention. However, this can result in candidates gaining viability in some precincts but not others, and a complicated "caucus math" required to allocate whole delegates to the county and state conventions for each precinct.^[32] (The exception is Washington, whose delegate selection plan does not include thresholds at the precinct level.) In the primaries, the viability threshold is set based on statewide votes, so candidates who get fewer than 15% of the votes in a state get no delegates, with the others splitting the delegates based on the proportion of votes.