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Fight Over Delegate Rules Escalates for Both Parties
Republicans, Democrats criticize rules that could give insiders advantage over primary voters in picking presidential nominees
The Wall Street Journal
By Aaron Zitner
Updated 4/19/2016
Excerpt:
Voters have gone to the polls in droves during the Republican primaries, putting turnout on a record pace, yet the decision about who will be the ultimate nominee is increasingly likely to rest with fewer than 2,500 party insiders.
That has put GOP leaders in a historic and potentially explosive bind: Explaining that while Donald Trump has the most votes—some 1.9 million more than his closest rival—the rules could allow those officials to nominate someone else.
Democrats face their own challenges. Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead is built in part on party officials known as superdelegates, rather than raw votes.
As the pace of voting picks up, with New Yorkers heading to the polls Tuesday and balloting in five Eastern states next Tuesday, both parties face intense pressure to explain why the outcome of primary elections may be overtaken by party rules that give outsize powers to party leaders and delegates.
“This is a turning point for American political parties,” said Elaine Kamarck, a former Clinton administration official and veteran of Democratic policy debates. After this, she predicts, the parties will either cede “even more power to the ordinary voter” or “go back to the days when this is purely a party business.”
The squeeze is particularly strong on the Republican side. Turnout this year is up 57% over 2012 and viewership for the party’s debates has set records. Voters in two of the most populous states, New York and California, are taking a rare, prominent role in the primary campaign as arbiters of the outcome.
But party leaders who have cheered the high turnout are now under fire to explain a process that could deprive Mr. Trump of the nomination, despite his large lead in both delegates and overall votes.
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View the complete article, including images, at:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fight-ov...ies-1461023856
Republicans, Democrats criticize rules that could give insiders advantage over primary voters in picking presidential nominees
The Wall Street Journal
By Aaron Zitner
Updated 4/19/2016
Excerpt:
Voters have gone to the polls in droves during the Republican primaries, putting turnout on a record pace, yet the decision about who will be the ultimate nominee is increasingly likely to rest with fewer than 2,500 party insiders.
That has put GOP leaders in a historic and potentially explosive bind: Explaining that while Donald Trump has the most votes—some 1.9 million more than his closest rival—the rules could allow those officials to nominate someone else.
Democrats face their own challenges. Hillary Clinton’s commanding lead is built in part on party officials known as superdelegates, rather than raw votes.
As the pace of voting picks up, with New Yorkers heading to the polls Tuesday and balloting in five Eastern states next Tuesday, both parties face intense pressure to explain why the outcome of primary elections may be overtaken by party rules that give outsize powers to party leaders and delegates.
“This is a turning point for American political parties,” said Elaine Kamarck, a former Clinton administration official and veteran of Democratic policy debates. After this, she predicts, the parties will either cede “even more power to the ordinary voter” or “go back to the days when this is purely a party business.”
The squeeze is particularly strong on the Republican side. Turnout this year is up 57% over 2012 and viewership for the party’s debates has set records. Voters in two of the most populous states, New York and California, are taking a rare, prominent role in the primary campaign as arbiters of the outcome.
But party leaders who have cheered the high turnout are now under fire to explain a process that could deprive Mr. Trump of the nomination, despite his large lead in both delegates and overall votes.
.................................................
View the complete article, including images, at:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fight-ov...ies-1461023856