Obama Rising -- New York edition
Crossposted at One Million Strong, Daily Kos and The Albany Project.
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Obama Qualifies for Full Delegate Slate in New York |
Here is the press release:
Through the work of hundreds of volunteers, the Obama campaign filed for the New York State ballot and qualified for full delegate slates in all of New York’s 29 congressional districts.
“This campaign is not about me, it is about the hundreds of volunteers across New York who gathered signatures, and the millions of people across this country who want change we can believe in,†said Barack Obama. “I look forward to continuing to get to know the people of New York so that together we can change this country.â€
Obama’s petition total, achieved without relying on paid help, reflects his strong grassroots support across New York. New York law requires 5,000 signatures for the presidential candidate and 500 signatures for each congressional district delegate slate.
The full delegate slate includes numerous elected officials in the state legislature, county and city governments, and Democratic Party clubs. Also represented on the slates are the leadership of dozens of grassroots organizations established in New York to support Obama’s presidential candidacy.
Why is this a big deal?
Because it positions Obama to win a LOT of delegates here on February 5. With proportional voting, any candidate receiving at least 15% of the vote gets delegates. If Obama won only 15 - 20% of the vote, he’d still get roughly 40 to 55 NY delegates. (Remember that Iowa has a total of 56). A grassroots Obama organization is in place in New York, and Obama supporters here are Fired Up!
Aren't all of the Democratic candidates going to be on the ballot in New York?
Clinton, Edwards, Biden, Richardson, Kucinich and Obama are on the statewide ballot (what happened to Dodd?). Only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton collected enough signatures in every single Congressional District in the state. This shows the broad support that Obama has here.
Of course, the reality is that New York is Hillary's state. She is expected to win the majority of the vote, and the majority of delegates. But wins in one or more early state could provide the momentum to move a lot of Empire State support Obama's way.
How did this happen? How did Barack collect all the necessary signatures around the state?
Well, he did it district by district, with an army of foot soldiers who braved the elements day after day, week after week to make sure he's ready to TAKE New York on February 5.
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2008 presidential election | 2008 primaries | Barack Obama | New York
I think fielding a list a delegates is helpful in this way:
Submitted by Daniel Millstone on 7 December 2007 - 4:01pm.
If the delegates are people well known in their communities, they may influence voters who know them.
Helpful info, thanks
Submitted by casperr on 7 December 2007 - 8:55pm.
We've been trying to understand exactly what the delegate petitions mean for the primary. I understand that delegates can be assigned later (didn't know about Kerry, though).
delegate election
Submitted by Gothanonymous Reader (not verified) on 7 December 2007 - 9:26pm.
Well, as Millstone says, delegates might actually attract folks to vote for their candidate, but if that were really the case, the New york race might have been between Dean and Lieberman. the truth is that, in apresidential primary, national events have a way of overtaking local ones.
Delegates do motiviate locals to work, as the higher a vote for a candiate in a district, the more dlegates he or she wins. Since the delegate canidates on each slate are actually competing against each other though, it sometimes results in a rather disharmonious operation.
Once its determined by the vote in a CD how many delgates each candidate gets, the votes for individual delgates determine which delegate candidates actually win. It's not always the top vote getters, as the gender split must be 50/50; it would take more time to explain than it is worth.
And paradoxies can theoretically occur. It makes no sense to vote for all the delegates for your candidate, if you have any preferences between them, since the votes delegates recieve do not determine how many delegates the candidate wins; the votes for the candidate do that. The dlegates for anty one caididate are really competing only against each other. So, if say, Tony Weiner ran as an Richardson delgate, and every voter in his CD voted for Weiner, regardless of their presidential choice, Weiner could theorirectically be the highest vote getter among all the delegate candidates in his CD, and still lose, if Richardson's vote total in that CD didn't qualify him for a delegate.
The petitioning is a show of strength at the time of the filing, ONLY!
kerry had no delegates
Submitted by Gothanonymous Reader (not verified) on 12 December 2007 - 6:06pm.
John Kerry won the New York primary last time and he had no delegates on the ballot at all because he had no money for petitioning when that was taking place. It didn't matter. He won and I think his delegates were assigned at the party's state convention.
delegates irrelevant
Whether or not a candidate has delegates on the ballot is absolutely irrelevant to winning delegates in New York. If a candidate gets a high enough % of the vote in a Congressional district to actually win delgates, that candidate can name them later.
Last time out, Kerry had virtually no delegates on the ballot, and he won most of the delegates anyway.