itsmeeeeeee

one from new hampshire, and six from s. carolina have switched their pledged delegate vote to obama already so far today.

Edwards endorsement pays off for Obama - Yahoo! News

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BillCosby

Here we go.......................

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

itsmeeeeeee

obama gets another edwards' delegate - this one from NC.

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itsmeeeeeee

nine of edwards' pledged delegates are now signed on with obama.
he just got one of the iowa delegates.

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RK77

Didn't you post something about a month ago about 4 Edwards delegates moving to Obama?

I could have sworn it was you.

RK77

Sort of interesting how this works!

Friday, February 01, 2008

Edwards delegate update



We previously analyzed the status of Edward's delegates, and determined that he would keep his 4 New Hampshire delegates, but his 14 Iowa delegates will very likely vanish at the next stage of Iowa's convention process.

So what's up with his 8 South Carolina delegates? Well after researching, and discussing in detail with the experts at The Green Papers, it seems clear that as long as Edwards keeps his campaign "suspended" as opposed to "ended", he will keep all of his delegates. Why is that? From the South Carolina Delegate Selection Plan:

If a presidential candidate is no longer a candidate at the time of selection of the At-large delegates, then those At-large slots that would have been allocated to the candidate will be proportionally divided among the remaining preferences entitled to an allocation.

This clause is also present in the national rules. So since Edwards is still technically a candidate, he will keep all his delegates. Now if he ever officially ends his campaign (although it's not clear why he would), it all depends on the meaning of "time of selection of the at-large delegates". If it's the time of the primary, than he keeps his 3 at-large delegates. If he ends his campaign before the state convention on May 3, and you consider the "time of selection" to be when specific delegates are actually selected, then he wouldn't get the delegates. I've been told this clause is actually open to debate, and there was talk of challenging it early in the Gore-Bradley matchup in 2000. But for now, the question is moot, as Edwards has not ended his campaign, so he keeps his 3 at-large delegates. And clearly, since no such clause exists for the district delegates he keeps those 5 under any circumstances.

So we'll keep Edwards at 12 delegates in our delegate tracker.

Update: Answering some questions in the comments: If Edwards wins any future delegates, as long as he keeps his campaign in "suspended" mode, he will keep those delegates into the convention. However, it is highly unlikely that he will win any future delegates, as he has to beat the 15% threshold in any Congressional District or statewide. That's not going to happen.

But to make things clear, the 12 delegates he has, like any other delegate, can vote for anybody they want to. They can vote for Edwards, they can vote for whoever Edwards endorses, or they can vote for themselves if they want.

RK77

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

What happens to Edwards' delegates?



With John Edwards' endorsement of Barack Obama this evening, the question everyone is asking is, "What happens to Edwards' pledged delegates?"

Well, the first answer, is nothing. As we were reminded yesterday, pledged delegates can vote for anybody at any time. So, rules-wise, Edwards' endorsement is meaningless.

However, from a political and practical viewpoint, pledged delegates will keep their pledge to vote for the candidate they were elected for until "released" by that candidate. By endorsing Obama, Edwards finally ended his campaign, which had been "suspended" up to now, and "released" his delegates to vote for the candidate of their choice. Of course, these delegates may decide to follow their original candidate and support Obama, and Edwards will of course be contacting them to urge them to support Obama. But until these delegates speak up and say who they will be supporting, they will essentially become uncommitted delegates. Which, essentially, makes them no different than superdelegates. (We'll keep them in the Edwards column for now).

So how many Edwards delegates are there? Four from New Hampshire, 8 from South Carolina, and 4 so far from Iowa. (The names are at the bottom of the post).

But wait. That's only 16. The DCW tracker shows Edwards with 19 delegates. Why the difference? It's because Edwards is projected by The Green Papers to get 3 state-wide delegates at the Iowa State Convention on June 14. But as we learned at the Iowa Congressional District Conventions in April, these delegate projections are only estimates. And it's difficult to see the Edwards forces holding together in June. (assuming the race is still going on then). So those final 3 delegates will likely get reassigned to other candidates, leaving Edwards with the 16 delegates described above.

But we're not done yet. Edwards also won 13 delegates in Florida, all at the CD level. (He won only 14.4% of the state-wide vote, so just fell short of getting any state-wide delegates - he would have picked up 9 or 10 delegates if he had hit 15%). Whether he keeps them depends on 1) whether the Florida delegates get seated at all, and 2) under what rules they get seated. That will have to wait for the RBC meeting at the end of the month.

Finally, when the history of this nomination battle is written, one question that's going to be asked is, did John Edwards leave the race too soon? While it's impossible to predict that things would have turned out the same way had Edwards stayed in longer, there's no doubt that if Edwards has stayed in, he would have likely won a sizable number of delegates on Super Tuesday. And if so, instead of his endorsement being mostly symbolic, he might have ended up the biggest kingmaker of all, basically getting to decide whether Clinton or Obama would get his support, his delegates, and therefore the nomination.

Politico gives us the names of the delegates from NH and SC:

New Hampshire:
District Level Delegate: Joshua Denton, (Portsmouth) - Endorsed Obama 5/14
District Level Delegate: Deborah Bacon-Nelson (Hanover)
Pledged Leader Elected Official: Senator Peter Hoe Burling (Cornish)
At-large Delegate: Representative Sharon Nordgren (Hanover)

South Carolina:
Robert Groce - Endorsed Obama 5/15
Marilyn Hemingway
E Tim Moore Barnwell
Christine Brennan-Bond - Endorsed Obama 5/15
Lauren Bilton - Endorsed Obama 5/15
Daniel Boan Kershaw - Endorsed Obama 5/15
Michael Evatt - Endorsed Obama 5/15
Susan Smith - Endorsed Obama 5/15

(we mistakenly listed John Moylan as a delegate - he is an alternate. Official list.)

Iowa:
Marci Wolff (Sioux City)
Machelle Crum (Newton)
Erlene Prather-Kane (Cedar Falls)
David Redlawsk (Iowa City)


Update: NH delegate Joshua Denton endorses Obama. Sidebar will be updated after the Green Papers updates.

Update 2: From Crack the Bell:

Just got an email from Daniel Boan (Edwards pledged delegate from SC): "Sen. Edwards's endorsement will be an important factor in how I decide to vote."

Update 2A: Supposedly John Moylon and Lauren Bilton said on CNN last night they were supporting Obama. We'll try to find confirmation. More from CNN:

John Moylan, a former senior adviser to the Edwards campaign, said the former North Carolina senator's delegates "are very, very committed to John Edwards."
He said at least six of his eight delegates in South Carolina are prepared to endorse Obama.
"I think you will see overwhelming support of John Edwards delegates standing with John Edwards, and now standing for Barack Obama," he said on CNN's "American Morning."

Update 3:

The co-chair of John Edwards’ presidential campaign in Iowa, Rob Tully, said he hopes the former vice presidential candidate’s supporters in the state heed his endorsement Wednesday of Barack Obama. “I was excited to see him endorse Obama,” Tully said. “I’m certainly going to follow his lead.”
...
Tully said he would reach out to those delegates, as well as others going to the state convention, encouraging them to close ranks behind Obama. “I encourage all our Democrats in Iowa to realize this race is over,” he said. - Quad City Times

Update 4: The names of Edwards' Iowa pledged delegates have been added thanks to Avi at Politico

Update 5/15 11:30 PM: Six delegates from SC have endorsed Obama and have been moved to the Obama column. We will update potential Iowa endorsements tomorrow.

RK77

I think this may be what I read somewhere here before.

January 31, 2008, 12:55 pm
4 Edwards Delegates Throw Support to Obama

By Sewell Chan


John Edwards’s withdrawal from the presidential contest has touched off a scramble for his supporters by the two leading Democratic candidates, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. This morning, Mr. Obama’s New York office announced that four Edwards delegate candidates in New York City had switched their support to the Illinois senator.

In the 14th Congressional District, which includes the East Side of Manhattan and part of Queens, Betsy Feist and Jeremiah Frei-Pearson are supporting Mr. Obama now. So are two delegate candidates — Marc A. Landis, a Democratic district leader, and Bobby Berlin — in the 8th Congressional District, which includes the West Side of Manhattan and a part of southern Brooklyn.

The significance of the endorsements is more symbolic than practical. Mr. Edwards’s name will still be on the ballot, but he won’t received any delegates in any Congressional district unless he gets at least 15 percent of the vote.

Also, the endorsements do not necessarily reflect mainstream Democratic viewpoints. Carolyn B. Maloney, who represents the 14th Congressional District, and Jerrold L. Nadler, who represents the 8th, have both endorsed Mrs. Clinton, who has the support of New York’s 23-member House delegation. But the announcement could signal that New York liberals attracted to Mr. Edwards’s populist message might be persuaded to move over to Mr. Obama.

“John Edwards has ended his campaign but we’re still committed to fighting for change,” Ms. Feist, who is president of the East Side Democratic Club, said in a statement. “Obama’s work as a community organizer in Chicago shows that he shares John Edwards commitment to fighting poverty, and a similar vision for America where fighting poverty will be a priority.”

Mr. Landis, who had helped lead a struggling effort by Edwards supporters to capture at least 15 percent — and at least one delegate — in each Congressional district, said of Mr. Obama, “His unique ability to unite Democrats, Republicans and independents guarantees he won’t just win in November — it means he’ll be a president with a powerful mandate to bring to Washington the kind of change we can believe in.”

itsmeeeeeee

good job, gang.

(i couldn't even wiggle last night to clarify any of this.
my septic system failed, and i'm in the middle of a major mess...
i was so exhausted, i literally collapsed right after i finally got to sit down and eat something.)

note: Obama +1 Addition in NC: NC Officials have said Obama will gain an extra delegate and Clinton will lose one due to numbers becoming official and he over performing in an area.

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itsmeeeeeee

pledged delegate from SC, Marilyn Hemingway has switched her edwards vote to obama today. that's 7 out of 8 in SC.

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