Superdelegates or Superbust

Superdelegates, super advantage or super disaster

New Mexico has 12 Superdelegates. Six are pledged to Senator Hillary Clinton and one is pledged to Senator Obama. Five are presently uncommitted. One of the uncommitted delegates has not been named as of yet. For the committed delegates the break down is: Lt. Governor Diane Denish, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, American Federation of Teachers-New Mexico President Christine Trujillo, and State Democratic Vice President Annadelle Sanchez are all pledged to Senator Clinton. Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Fred Harris is pledged to Senator Obama. Delegates that are not yet pledged are Senator Jeff Bingaman, Congressman Tom Udall, Governor Bill Richardson, State Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon and one as yet unnamed delegate.

The problem with Superdelegates is that they can vote anyway they like and they do not have to base their decision on how the voters feel about our candidates.

We, voters and members of the Democratic Party, want to think that our vote counts!

We all want the popular vote to decide who our candidate will be for the presidential election in November. No one wants party leaders to decide who our presidential candidate will be this year. It is not that we don’t support and respect our party leaders. The voting public simply wants to be the ones to make the decision of who our candidate will be in November. Talking with friends, I know that this issue makes people very angry. It also makes them angry to think that once the first vote is cast at the Democratic National Convention that delegates are free to pick between the two candidates based on their own decision. The voters in the Democratic Party already feel that their rights were taken away in the 2000 election for president. Voters feel that the mess our country is presently in could have been avoided if the results had been based upon the popular vote and not the Electoral College. The system of electing a candidate is outdated and does not represent current abilities to communicate the voter’s beliefs and desires when it comes to choosing a candidate. The Democratic National Party should look at doing away with the system of delegates all together and basing the decision on total popular vote.

I know that this system would favors larger states with greater numbers of voters. This could be cancelled out by requiring candidates to spend a minimum amount of time in each state. Each candidate should spend time in each and every state in the union meeting and talking with the voting public. The primaries and caucuses should all be held on one day such as Super Tuesday. The National Party should care more about how people feel when it comes to their vote. The concept is one voter, one vote. No person should have more power over the process to choose a presidential candidate than a single voter. Has our national party leadership forgotten the ideal of a government for the people and by the people? I would hope that the Superdelegates in our state will pledge to vote in the same way as the popular vote giving the chose of presidential candidate for our party back to the democratic voting public where the Constitution of the United State planned it to be in the first place.