Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is in a tough position. He’s in charge of debate rules to try and whittle down the party’s massive number of candidates seeking the presidency in 2020, while trying to alleviate concerns about how fair the nomination process is this year compared to 2016.
One of the chief complaints against him is his decision to dilute the power of the superdelegates, who in 2016 overwhelmingly chose Hillary Clinton over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and comprised 30% of the party’s total delegate score. Democrats in Congress, who normally count as superdelegates, are upset that their power has been somewhat changed. Now, superdelegates are barred from voting in the first ballot at the Democrat National Convention if their vote would decide who gets the nomination. If no candidate gets a majority of the votes in the first round, superdelegates will then be able to vote in subsequent rounds.
It’s a small change that might not make any difference, but Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) told Politico this amounts to him and his fellow superdelegates being treated like “second-class citizens in our convention.”
Second-class citizens – in other words, treated more like the party base. Talk about an elitist way of thinking. – read more