There are 4,040 delegates to be voting at the National Convention. Of these, 333 are "declared/committed".
Of the 333 declared so far:
CLINTON = 184 (55%)
OBAMA = 78 (23%)
EDWARDS = 52 (16%)
Richardson 19 ( 6%)
Kucinich 1 (0.3%)
"WTF?" Some folks may be thinking. "But Clinton was THIRD in Iowa and only had a (relatively) narrow win in NH! How is this possible??!!"
Ah, yes. Well, the thing is there are "delegates" (that ordinary voters select), and then there are the SUPERDELEGATES, some of whom may well wear tights
and capes, but that's for another diary.
In terms of voter-selected delegates, 3,248 will be attending the National Convention. Of these, only 67 have been selected so far. The breakdown is:
CLINTON = 24
OBAMA = 25
EDWARDS = 18
(nobody else has any yet)
However, 266 of 792 SUPERDELEGATES have apparently committed so far. Of these, the breakdown is:
CLINTON = 159 (20% of the 792 total)
OBAMA = 53 (6.7%)
EDWARDS = 34 (4.3%)
Richardson 19 (2.4%)
Kucinich 1 (probably himself, see below)
The whole idea behind primary voting was to move the candidate selection process out of the "smoke-filled back room" and allow the people to decide instead of just the party-insider power-brokers. However, some of this element remains in the form of SUPERDELEGATES representing about 20% of the total convention delegates (though their "backroom" is probably somewhat less smoky these days).
Superdelegates include:
all currently serving Democratic members of Congress: 49 Senate + 233 House = 282
(I don't think Lieberbag gets to attend, though we could probably have him wiping down the Porta-Potties)
PLUS the members of the DNC (510).
Of the 510 DNC members:
100 - Chair and Vice-chair of each state committee
200 - apportioned among the states based on population and generally elected either on the ballot by primary voters or by the State Democratic Party Committee
210 - elected officials serving in an ex-officio capacity, AND a variety of representatives of major Democratic Party constituencies.
So, one might expect that a candidate would receive all the Superdelegate votes of the Congresscritters from their home state. For Clinton, this is New York, of course, with a relatively large number of Congresscritters. Huh. Wonder why she chose NY to represent as Senator?
Now, on another note, I've been suffering with serious sinus congestion, cough, etc. for a few days. Went to the doctor and his steely-eyed, highly technical diagnosis was that I have "that thing that's been going around lately. That'll be a $30 co-pay, please." So, the drugs I'm taking for this have started to kick in, thus rendering any futher analysis or breakdown of the DNC member numbers on my part unfit for general consumption (unless you're stoned, too).
So, party on, dudes!