Democrats this afternoon agreed to re-examine how they nominate presidential candidates following a contentious primary season.
The party’s national rules committee on Saturday approved a resolution calling for the creation of a “Democratic Change Commission” to examine when primaries and caucuses are held, whether there should be fewer superdelegates and how to make the caucus process clearer and more orderly.
But the rules committee itself didn’t take on questions about whether Iowa and New Hampshire should still be allowed to hold their caucuses before any other presidential contests.
The 35-member commission is to make its report to the party by 2010, ahead of the 2012 elections.
The commission’s formation follows party infighting after the Florida and Michigan primaries, which tried to move up ahead of the New Hampshire and Iowa caucuses against the Democratic Party’s rules. The national party first stripped both states of their delegate votes, then later gave back each state half of their votes in a compromise.
Rules committee members who spoke in favor of the resolution Saturday said that record turnout for caucuses this year highlighted some of the problems with the process, some saying they saw “chaos.” Some in the party have argued for doing away with caucuses in favor of primaries, saying the caucus process is undemocratic.
Wilma Webb, a former Colorado lawmaker and wife of former Denver mayor Wellington Webb, defended the caucus system.
“As someone from a caucus state, when they are run properly, they can be a wonderful way for people to come together” and discuss issues, she said.
Some at Saturday’s rules committee meeting also complained of the role of unpledged delegates, also known as superdelgates. The number of superdelegates has increased dramatically in the last two decades, and candidates this year spent too much time trying to woo unpledged delegates, critics said.
Mike Coleman , mayor of Columbus, Ohio, said the amount of time candidates spent courting superdelegates this year distracted from discussions of issues.
“The vast majority of the public had no idea what superdelgates were until this year,” Coleman said.
But the chances of the party making major changes in its the nomination process might be unlikely.
“Everybody sees a real need for us to reform the way we do this,” former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges , who introduced a plan Saturday to examine the schedule, told the Associated Press. But Hodges added that his state’s status as one of the earliest to choose a nominee won’t change.
“The first four states, those aren’t going anywhere,” Hodges said, referring to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
