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DNC members arrive in Chicago to talk midterms, 2020 convention

Nearly 500 Democrats from across the U.S. converge on Chicago Wednesday to conduct party business.

It’s the Democratic National Committee summer meeting, where Democrats will come together for three days to discuss work related to the midterm elections on Nov. 6 and take up reforms to the 2020 presidential nominating process – from the caucuses to the primaries to so-called “superdelegates.” The clout of these delegates who earn a seat with their state delegations because of party status will likely be trimmed.

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/dnc-s ... 8-updates/

Five Hundred of them. All in one spot.

DNC planning presidential primary TV debates for 2019: report

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is in the "very early stages" of planning for a series of televised debates in 2019, a party official said Saturday.

The Associated Press reports that a DNC official says the party is planning for several debates to occur months before the first primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire vote.

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/40 ... s-for-2019

DNC Votes To Largely Strip ‘Superdelegates’ Of Presidential Nominating Power

The Democratic National Committee dramatically reduced the power and influence of "superdelegates" in selecting the party's presidential nominee at their summer meeting in Chicago on Saturday, ahead of what's expected to be a wide-open Democratic field in 2020.

DNC members voted on a proposal to take away the role of elected officials and other party dignitaries in selecting a nominee at the Democratic convention — leaving it up to delegates selected in primaries and caucuses only — unless the process becomes deadlocked.

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/aug/25/d ... egates-in/

Allow me to note some other points from that story:

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2018/aug/25/d ... egates-in/

The reforms adopted also encourage states that hold presidential caucuses, run by state parties, to switch to primaries, administered by state and local election officials. They require caucuses, in-person meetings, to have some provision for absentee participation, citing barriers to participation ranging from military service to child care to disability. (*)

[snip]

In a letter to Perez, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, made a similar argument, saying the proposal would "disenfranchise elected officials for no substantive reason and would create unnecessary competition between those elected and their constituents."

"The thought that a member of Congress would have to compete with their constituents in an election to secure a first ballot vote on the party's nominee creates unnecessary friction between those elected and the people they are elected to serve," he wrote.

The proposal also drew criticism from a former interim DNC chair, Donna Brazile, in a bylaws committee meeting Friday.

"At a time when we're trying to figure out as a party if we're gonna disenfranchise those who are party leaders, party officials, party donors, party activists and [the] grassroots, I think this would just really kick the you-know-what out of us," said Brazile, who stepped in as DNC chair during the middle of the 2016 campaign after Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced out over evidence of DNC bias against Sanders.

[snip][end]

I wonder why people are silent about opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus.

I am not.

(*) Good. This reform I support. Caucuses are often heralded as popular democracy in action, but the irony of how they often run and function means, actually, democracy is hijacked by elites.

Anyway, superdelegates were not eliminated. They just don't vote on the first ballot.

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-- Tis an ill wind that blows no minds.
Malaclypse the Younger