2 years ago
The party nominations for President are usually well sewn up by the time the Nominating Conventions roll around, but some think neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will have enough delegates in hand to assure thier nomination when they arrive in Denever during the last week of August. In political parlance, such an occurrence is referred to as a "brokered" convention and we truly haven't had one of those since 1948.
The lion's share of convention delegates, 4 out of 5, will have been selected as a result of the individual State Primaries and Caucuses. As such most of these delegates are committed to a particular candidate.
Then there are the Super Delegates. There are 695 of them, all members of the party elite.
They include all Democratic US Senators, Members of Congress and Governors. They also include any former Democratic Presidents or Vice Presidents (in this case Messrs. Clinton, Carter, Mondale and Gore, respectively)
Because they are officially pledged to no one they would, presumably in a tight race, step forth to assert their considerable influence to pick the candidate which they feel gives the party the best chance of winning.
It's a scenario where, in effect, the party royalty would be the kingmakers.
For a list of Super Delegates from New York State and who they plan to support, go to
For a list of Super Delegates from across the United States and who they pledge to support
WGRZ
