Besides nominating the first black presidential candidate to represent a major political party, the Democratic Party's 2008 primary season was noteworthy for one, the battle over primary dates and the resulting controversy over seating delegates from Michigan and Florida and two, the kingmaker role "superdelegates" almost played in determining the party nominee.
Thankfully, the Democratic National Committee has set up a commission to propose changes to the process.
A commission suggestion would be to allow the first four states that held nominating contests in the January 2008 maintain their early, privileged calendar positions. But these states - Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina - would be directed to delay holding their caucuses and primaries before February 1. All other states would be forbidden from holding their nominating contests until at least the first Tuesday in March...Another recommendation in the report suggested grouping states by "region or sub-region." (Link)
Regarding superdelegates, the committee has yet to provide recommendations but appears to understand the issues:
"The DNC must address the perception that there are too many unpledged delegates and those delegates could potentially overturn the will of the people, as determined by the state contests," the commission stated...No formal solution dealing with superdelegates was arrived at Saturday and the commission will draft a plan to reduce their numbers in the coming weeks. (Link)
The process will still be a mish mash even if the committee resolves primary dates and superdelegate rules. There's caucuses vs. primaries. There's open vs. closed primaries. There's winner take all vs. proportioned delegate wins. At the end of the day, the campaigns don't only rely on a candidates popularity but how good the campaign strategist is at figuring out the labyrinth that's the Democratic Party's primary process.
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