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Editorial: Superdelegate system ripe for reform

Share of unbound delegates undercuts party's democracy.

Last update: March 11, 2008 - 1:54 AM

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MINN. SUPERDELEGATES

Minnesota has 14 superdelegates so far; two more will be chosen at the state convention in June. Their preference breakdown:

• Obama: 8

• Clinton: 3

• Uncommitted: 3

The state's remaining 72 delegates will be allotted according to votes cast at Feb. 5 precinct caucuses: Obama, 48, Clinton, 24.

Hate the Democratic Party's superdelegate system? Don't blame Don Fraser. Yes, the former Minneapolis congressman and mayor was an architect of the current Democratic Party presidential selection process. He succeeded South Dakota's George McGovern as chair of the panel that in 1972 brought somewhat convoluted order to what had been a crazy-quilt, boss-dominated process.

But Fraser's commission did not create superdelegates, or the rules that may result this year in super-power for those 794 party leaders. That wrinkle was added in 1982, because of dissatisfaction with the way Fraser's reforms relegated members of Congress, governors and party officers to "any-citizen" status, required to compete for delegate spots.

"One of the reactions was, people with knowledge and experience were no longer valued. They know a lot, they have good judgment, and they ought to play a role," Fraser recalled last week.

But superdelegates weren't created to rescue their party from a bad nomination, or to usurp the power of primary voters and caucusgoers, Fraser said. "The idea that they are there to save the party is a contemporary notion."

Contemporary -- and unfortunate. The possibility that this year, superdelegates carrying nomination trump cards could supersede the decisions made by record-breaking millions of primary and caucus participants offends the principle imbedded in the Democratic Party's very name. No matter how the historic matchup between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is resolved this year, the Democratic Party ought to reconsider the role of party leaders in the selection of its presidential candidates.

Some of the concern about how superdelegates might exercise their franchise in coming months seems overwrought. Party leaders are not unaccountable free agents, as they've sometimes been portrayed. Be they elected officials or party officeholders, they are politicians with constituencies to which they must answer. They will pay a price if they stray from their supporters' desires.

Still, setting aside nearly 20 percent of a convention's seats for people not bound by the wishes of the party's rank-and-file seems excessive. On that point, uncommitted Minnesota superdelegate U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar agrees. She'd prefer that superdelegate ranks be capped at something closer to 10 percent.

The situation of Democratic senators like Klobuchar highlights another area for superdelegate reform. Some members of Congress don't want to be compelled to choose among presidency-seeking senators, for the very good reason that doing so might damage their collegial relationships with the losers, who often remain in Senate ranks. Sensitivity to their position is reason enough to relieve members of Congress of superdelegate obligations.

For this year, Klobuchar and her superdelegate peers have no choice but to play their assigned part in determining the Democratic nominee. Fraser shared the advice he would give them: "They should vote based first on their sense of what's best for the country, then what's best for the party, and after that, what's best for them." We think he has the right guiding formula.

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