Remember primary season, those 56 primaries, caucuses and prima-caucuses that dominated television for six manic months? There were Hillary Clinton’s tears in New Hampshire, Barack Obama’s guns-and-God deprecation in California, Bill Richardson’s leper-lament to Wolf Blitzer, and John “Son of a Mill Worker” Edwards’ only scandal was a hair-primping blooper set to West Side Story’s “I Feel Pretty.” And, oh yeah, weren’t Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel and Tom Vilsack candidates at some point?
Those were the good ol’ days of presidential politics, when YouTube was rife with gut-busting spoofs and every other day one candidate was calling for shame on another. This week, as the Democratic National Convention unfolds (Aug. 25 to 28 at the Pepsi Center in Denver), the voting public will feel the last aftershock of the primary season. Once there was talk of a smoky, brokered convention, of Hillary’s supporters fighting on the convention floor and scorched-earth tactics aimed at sabotaging Obama’s 2008 bid in exchange for a second chance for Clinton in 2012. Now, however, the dust has settled and the GOP’s secret prayers have gone unanswered: Unity ain’t just a photo-op in New England.
But even without the drama, New Mexico’s 38-member delegation to Denver (excluding alternates, non-voting delegates and pages) is excited for the convention to begin.
Former New Mexico Attorney General and DNC Platform Committee Co-Chairwoman Patricia Madrid’s voice raises a thrilled pitch when she talks about the presumptive nominee, “No Drama” Obama.
“It’s going to be very historic,” Madrid, a convention veteran, tells SFR. “We’re going to be able to tell our children and grandchildren that we were there when this man was nominated.”
Though New Mexico’s delegate is puny compared to Michigan’s and Florida’s (neither of which were supposed to have any delegates), the state will have one of the strongest voices at the convention. Not only was our governor the fourth most-viable presidential candidate (third, if you apply Edwards’ infidelity retroactively), but he also put everything on the line by going tongue-to-tongue with Ragin’ Cajun James Carville.
Furthermore, Madrid’s position on the Platform Committee is one of the most powerful insider appointments available. Madrid’s and Richardson’s prominence also adds leverage for New Mexico’s other standing committee members, who will have a say in whether Michigan and Florida get full votes and whether Clinton will have a chance to be nominated for the first ballot. Both proposals are now supported by Obama himself, even though only a few months ago, either one had the potential to overturn his nomination.
“I don’t care who you’re talking to, New Mexico is clearly a top-tier swing state,” Democratic Party of New Mexico Chairman Brian Colón says. “I think the role New Mexico will play at the convention is the same as the role they’re going to play in November—one of the most important states on the nominee’s road to the White House.”
And that’s the real thrill of the convention: It will take more than field offices (17 as of mid-August) for Obama to woo New Mexico’s crucial five electoral votes. So, citizens, get your dance cards ready, New Mexico will be among the most popular debutantes at the ball.
Full, live and interactive coverage of SFR at the DNC can be found on our Swing State of Mind blog.
EXTRA: Charting the Democratic "Web of Power"
Also related: Interview with NM Lt. Gov. Diane Denishand the low-down on protesting at the DNC
Story Continues...
THE VOTE
Wednesday, Aug. 27
A total of 4,069 delegates will vote for the presidential nominee, but because some of those delegates only have half-votes (it sucks to be Guam), only 4,048 votes will be cast. If for some reason Obama doesn’t win 50 percent of the vote the first time around (say, Clinton is put on the nomination roll and there’s a last minute revolt), the delegates will vote again. That hasn’t happened since 1952, when Adlai Stevenson won the nomination on the third ballot.
THE STANDING COMMITTEES
The speaking schedule alone makes the DNC seem like the Coachella of Soapboxing (or, to Republicans, the Warped Tour of Grandstanding), but it’s also a convention like any other, where committees convene to discuss internal policies within the Democratic Party.
Credentials Committee
Initially, the Democratic Party stripped Florida and Michigan of all their delegates because the states bumped up their primaries to January. The party as a whole had decided that only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina were allowed to throw primary elections and caucuses before Feb 5., Super Duper Tuesday.
Clinton won both states (Obama wasn’t even on the Michigan ballot) and many observers criticized her when she began selling the “every vote should count” argument since she’d signed the same no-campaigning pledge as Obama. Nevertheless, Clinton’s people took their case to the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee in May, a strategic move Huffington Post characterized as a “scorched earth” tactic, and the shot-heard-around-the-world in an emerging Democratic Party civil war.
In the end, Rules & Bylaws agreed to a complicated vote-split agreement that left each of those states’ delegates with a half-vote.
But, before the delegates can officially nominate Obama, the issue of Florida and Michigan will be debated before the DNC’s Credentials Committee. The committee can’t undo the prior decision (i.e. re-strip the states of their delegates), but they can choose to reinstate the delegates’ full votes. And that’s exactly what the Obama camp has asked New Mexico’s Credentials Committee member John Wertheim to support.
“I think that people tend to overestimate the amount of division while the primaries were going on and underestimate people’s ability to look past those divisions and come together,” Wertheim, one of Clinton’s most aggressive supporters in New Mexico, says. “I know from personal knowledge that the Hillary people are excited to be supporting Obama and we’re really going to be working hard to make sure that New Mexico is in his column come election day.”
Wertheim fought hard following New Mexico’s caucus to secure as many delegates as possible for Clinton, including a legal challenge to Colón’s decision to nominate Laurie Weahkee, a Native American activist, as a superdelegate. At the time, Weahkee had largely been presumed to be an unannounced Obama supporter.
“The [‘Weahkee-Colón issue’] is certainly not going to come up in the committee because I was the one that was upset about it,” Wertheim says. “We made a decision that it was fine and we certainly weren’t going to risk party unity over the issue. It was all resolved very amicably. There will be no [delegate credential] challenges from New Mexico.”
Rules Committee
Like the Credentials Committee, the Rules Committee could have been the site of a tooth-and-nail show down if Clinton hadn’t conceded in June. In essence, neither candidate won enough delegates from the primaries to secure the nomination. Instead, superdelegates (elected officials and party insiders) ultimately put Obama over the top and, technically, they can change their votes at the last minute on the convention floor.
The Rules Committee debates the rules for the convention itself (as opposed to the Rules & Bylaws Committee, which debates the entire party’s rules) and therefore controls that part of nomination process.
Obama-supporter John Pound, New Mexico’s representative on the Rules Committee, now says Rules will likely be the least sexy of the three meetings in Denver.
“A couple of months ago it was conceivable that the Rules Committee, when it met in Denver, might have some thorny issues to deal with,” Pound, a six-time DNC delegate, says. “A week out now, I have no reason to believe and no one’s told me that there’s going to be anything contentious. It probably won’t be the most exciting television for viewers who watch such things on C-Span.”
Platform Committee
If party unity has taken the wind out of the Credentials and Rules Committee, it’s only strengthened the importance of the DNC’s Platform Committee, which sets the priorities for the party for the coming term. That’s ultimately a good thing for New Mexico; Madrid was tapped by national party Chairman Howard Dean to join Obama-buddy Gov. Deval Patrick and Discovery Channel CEO Judith McHale as co-chairs of the committee.
The committee will approve a 50-page document detailing the party’s goals on issues ranging from civil liberties to health care to poverty. But to Madrid, the process was as important as the policies. Obama, she says, allowed voters to form their own discussion groups and caucuses and to file their proposals through the candidate’s Web site.
“We had over 1,600 meetings registered and that means thousands and thousands of people were involved in this process,” Madrid says. “This is the way Obama does everything, not only on the platform committee, but in the way he’s delivering his acceptance speech, opening it to 80,000 people instead of just the party insiders.”
Health care and retirement came up time and time again during the meetings, Madrid says. But Ellen Bernstein, New Mexico’s other representative on the committee, hopes to bring up the problems caused by No Child Left Behind.
“It’s hurting children, it’s hurting schools, it’s hurting teachers, it’s hurting everybody,” Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation says, “We need to get rid of the whole thing and I’m hoping that the Democrats, Obama in particular, will be able to lead us into a new role for the federal government in public education.”
But it’s Bernstein’s first convention and she’s not sure yet how to be the most effective.
“I figure it’s going to pretty overwhelming, “ she says. “[The Democratic Party of New Mexico] has been great about calling us delegates together to talk about what to expect, but it’s not like those conversations lead me to a deep understanding. There’s going to be a lot of playing it by ear and managing the crowds in the process.”
Full, live and interactive coverage of SFR at the DNC can be found on our Swing State of Mind blog.
EXTRA: Charting the Democratic "Web of Power"
Also related: Interview with NM Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and the low-down on protesting at the DNC
Story Continues...
THE SPEAKING SCHEDULE
Monday, Aug. 25: “One Nation”
Although the first night of the convention is dedicated to highlighting Obama’s life story, the schedule of speakers indicates the night is more about Obama’s closest female supporters and US Sen. Ted Kennedy, Mass., who was diagnosed mid-campaign with a brain tumor. US Sen. Clair McCaskill, Mo., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Calif., will take the stage, followed by a headline address by Michelle Obama.
Tuesday, Aug. 26: “Renewing America’s Promise”
“Promise” is the umbrella term Democrats will use during the convention to cover the economy and energy, which go hand in hand considering how hard American pockets are getting hit at the pumps. However, Tuesday night is also a celebration of the campaign surrogates. On the Obama side, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sibelius, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and US Sen. Bob Casey Jr of Pennsylvania will speak on how to pull America out of the economic grave dug by the Bush administration. But, really, it’s the Clinton camp’s night, with her two most influential backers, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell warming up the crowd before Hillary Clinton takes the stage herself.
Wednesday, Aug. 27: “Securing America’s Future”
Skeptics who doubt Obama has national security at the top of his priorities should note that most of Wednesday is devoted to addressing Iraq, Afghanistan and global terrorism. Pres. Bill Clinton will presumably have chewed and swallowed the rest of his crow before addressing the crowd on a stage that will also feature hawkish foreign policy wonks US Sen. Joe Biden, Del, and US Sen. Evan Bayh, Ind. This is the night for New Mexicans to tune in since Gov. Bill Richardson will also be speaking, an engagement he no doubt secured because of his martyr-like defense of Obama, the ambitious Iraq-withdrawal proposal he pumped during the debates and, of course, because many consider him the most appropriate nominee for Obama’s Secretary of State.
Wednesday also is the night when Obama’s vice presidential nominee will accept his or her nomination. As of deadline, Obama had not revealed his chosen running mate, but SFR can’t help but note that oft-mentioned Sen. Jim Webb, Va., isn’t on the schedule—yet. (That’s particularly strange because Wednesday is billed as a “tribute to veterans, active duty military and military families,” and Webb is the second most prominent military man in the US Senate, surpassed only by John McCain. The difference is, Webb spearheaded the GI Bill revamp while McCain hampered its passage. )
Thursday Aug. 28: “Change You Can Believe In”
Seventy-six thousand Democrats. Barack Obama. Invesco Stadium. At the 1968 convention in Chicago, demonstrators committed the phrase, “The whole word is watching,” to the protest canon. This time around, the chant won’t be just hyperbole.
Full, live and interactive coverage of SFR at the DNC can be found on our Swing State of Mind blog.
Also related: Interview with NM Lt. Gov. Diane Denish and the low-down on protesting at the DNC
EXTRA: Charting the Democratic "Web of Power"
