Here we go: Tulsi Gabbard moves to make a big change to the Democrats’ primary process

Hot Air.com ^ | June 12, 2016 | JAZZ SHAW

[Kaslin]

For all the carping about the glaring flaws in the Republican primary process, it’s still nothing compared to the circus that the Democrats have going. With Bernie Sanders all but swept off the stage at this point, resentment over their method of assigning delegates remains and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard seems to have had enough of the Superdelegates who keep their thumbs on the scale throughout the process. With that in mind, she’s kicked off a petition to get rid of them. (Politico)

The Democratic presidential primary process may be ending next Tuesday, but the fight among Bernie Sanders supporters to rid the party of superdelegates and install new leadership at the Democratic National Committee is not.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard encouraged her followers on Saturday to sign a petition ending the Democratic Party’s use of superdelegates.

“Whether you are a Bernie Sanders supporter or a Hillary Clinton supporter, we should all agree that unelected party officials and lobbyists should not have a say in who the presidential nominee of our party is,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “That should be left up to the voters.”

It’s not as if Gabbard is some sort of lone voice in the wilderness. As Politico reminds us, just this weekend the West Virginia delegation went on record demanding big changes.

The West Virginia Democratic Party at its state convention Saturday passed a resolution calling for the elimination of superdelegates, or that superdelegates be required “in each state to vote in the same relative proportion as the elected delegates of the state they represent.”

That’s an odd distinction to draw, actually. If you turn the Superdelegates into bound delegates by forcing them to vote in numbers proportional to the state primary results they’re not really “superdelegates” anymore, are they? They’re just “bonus delegates” at that point, much the same as the GOP already has.

Oh, and not for nothing, but West Virginia also called for Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to resign. Gabbard already resigned her position as a vice chair of the national committee but the tide seems to be shifting. If they can get an actual uprising going, it’s not difficult to imagine Gabbard as the new DNC chair. That would be a darned shame for conservatives because Debbie Downer is an endless source of amusement on the cable news circuit.

I will add one note to simply question what will change if they eliminate or bind the Superdelegates. Clinton was the eventual winner of the race even if it was much closer than she would have liked. The Superdelegates are not changing the outcome (unless something extraordinary happens between now and the big party in Philadelphia) and they’ve not changed the outcome of a primary race since they’ve been around. It’s undemocratic as all get out, but recent events have me wondering if they might actually need some sort of a safety valve. In the unlikely event that Clinton is actually indicted before the convention, they may still have to pull Bernie off the bench to save the day.

Interesting times indeed.

[Chode]

[VRW Conspirator]

That would be a darned shame for conservatives because Debbie Downer is an endless source of amusement on the cable news circuit.