School of Social Sciences and International Studies

CNN Radio interviews Levine

CNN Headline

Professor Myron Levine interviewed by CNN Radio on the role of superdelegates and their impact on the presidential race

 

Urban and Public Affairs professor Myron Levine was interviewed on CNN Radio’s The Michael Smerconish Program (March 17). 

Levine argued that superdelegates were intended to add some sense of “balance” to the selection process.  Superdelegates comprise about 15 percent of the Democratic convention and only 7 percent of the Republican delegates (and they are not always “super” or free to vote their intentions at the Republican convention).  It makes no sense for a party to nominate a candidate who is a sure loser in November.  Superdelegates help to assure that the nominating race is not captured by the “party of the moment,” a movement that saddles the party with a candidate who cannot win in November.

Levine pointed to the “paranoia” and misinformation surrounding much of the debate over superdelegates who, this year, will not determine the party’s nominees.  Other features of the presidential selection—the impact of winner-take-all and proportional representation systems—will be much more important factors in determining wo the Republican and Democratic parties run for president.

Upcoming Republican races are winner-take-all in such states as Arizona, Wisconsin, Connecticut, New Jersey and California.  If Trump wins a number of these states, he will have a clear delegate lead and will coast to the nomination, whatever the concerns of so-called party elites.  If Trump loses these states, his delegate lead will disappear.  The voters, not superdelegates, will decide Trump’s fate.

Similarly, Hillary Clinton has a hold on the nomination as she has won more votes than has Bernie Sanders.  The Democratic Party’s proportional representation (PR) rules make it near-impossible for Sanders to catch Clinton, as PR rules give the “loser” of a contest almost as many delegates as won by the “winner.”  Again, the voters, not the much-loathed superdelegates, will decide who will win the party’s presidential nomination.

Levine is the author of Presidential Campaigns and Elections.  The book is now out of print but was once one of the major texts describing the changes taking place in the presidential selection process.  He now devotes his time to issues of Urban Politics, Public Policy, and Public Administration.

Myron Levine

 


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