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Twin Town High (vol. 8) |
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Super delegates
Thursday 06 April @ 13:25:49 |
  by Nancy Sartor
The race for Martin Sabo’s 5th Congressional District seat has more candidates (and perhaps more drama) than “America’s Next Top Model.” At present, nearly a dozen Democrats, two Republicans and one Green Party member are vying for the coveted seat in the U.S. House of Representatives that Sabo held for 28 years. From city council members to a county commissioner, from the park board to the private sector, the list of candidates is long and likely to grow.
May 6 is the Democratic Party’s endorsing convention. With that many DFL candidates in the race, it’s possible that no one will garner enough votes to secure the party’s endorsement. What’s interesting, though, is that Sabo will be a “super delegate” at the endorsing convention.
 Donna
Cassutt, associate party chair for the DFL, explained. “We have what’s
called ‘distinguished party leaders,’ and they serve as at-large
delegates to our state convention, and then to all the conventions of the lower-level
party units in which they live.” Cassutt said distinguished party leaders
include DFL members of the state House and Senate, DFL state constitutional
officers, Minnesota’s DFL members of the U.S. House and Senate, any current
or former U.S. president or vice-president and Native American tribal chairs
with headquarters in Minnesota.
The number of super delegates in any given race fluctuates depending who’s
in office and when, but it’s unusual to have a super delegate voting at
an endorsing convention that includes his former chief-of-staff (Mike Erlandson)
as a candidate.
Does that create a conflict of interest? No, says Cassutt. But with a political
stronghold in the 5th Congressional District and elsewhere in the metro area,
does the super delegate system favor those with a long history in old-school
party politics? ||
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