An Open Letter to My Democratic Colleagues and Party Leaders

I became involved with our delegate selection Chisolm, the Convention elected George McGovern process as a delegate to the 1972 National Democratic as our Presidential nominee. Convention and President of the South Carolina My day job at the time was Executive Young Democrats 1971 – 1973. I have been Assistant to South Carolina Governor John West. He intricately involved with the process ever since. and other elected officials and party leaders felt that Some of you may recall the chaos our party the rules undermined their relationships with their endured in 1964 when challenges to a state delegate staffs and constituents. They felt it unseemly to resulted in a 50-50 split between the challenges and challenge a staffer, campaign worker, or constituent the official delegation, and a state delegation being to be a delegate and many of them disengaged from ousted in 1968. After the 1968 Convention the the process and the campaign. Subsequently, Democratic National Committee established the McGovern carried only one state and the District of Democratic Commission on Party Structure and Columbia. Delegate Selection, and named Senator George Following the 1972 Convention, I was named McGovern of South Dakota its Chairman. In 1969, to the newly created DNC Delegate Selection they published a report titled “Mandate for Change.” Commission. We were tasked with reviewing the rules and making recommendations for the 1976 The 1972 Convention: elections. Central to our discussions was how to keep McGovern resigned from the Commission in Governors, Congressional members, and other elected 1971 to run for President, and Representative Donald officials and party leaders engaged in the process Fraser replaced him. Responding to the 1968 chaos while granting grassroots participants more influence. and bloodshed, the McGovern Fraser Commission Ours was not an easy task, but we gave it our made some significant changes for the 1972 best shot. We eliminated winner-take-all systems, Convention. and replaced the perceived “quota” language with affirmative action requirements designed to further State parties were ordered to adopt explicit increase participation. Things ran smoothly in 1976, written rules regarding delegate selection. although I continued my nonconforming ways. I was elected to the Convention as a Senator Frank Church Proxy voting and the Unit Rule were delegate, and switched to Jimmy Carter when Church abolished. dropped out. The Convention nominated Jimmy Carter. State parties were instructed that membership was to be open to all persons who wished to 1980 Convention: be Democrats and were not members of Following the 1976 election, a new another party, and Commission chaired by Michigan State Party Chairman Morley Winograd was appointed. The State delegations had to have “reasonable Winograd Commission recommended that each representation” of minority groups, young delegate to the 1980 Convention would be bound to people, and women in their delegations. vote on the first ballot for the candidate he or she was Unfortunately, some interpreted this to be a elected to represent. “quota” system, even though that word wasn’t This provision - Rule 11(H) - became used in the rules. controversial. Senator Edward Kennedy mounted a challenge to President Carter who was vying for a 1976 Commission: second term and attempted to have the rule changed Many felt the McGovern-Fraser rules went too so that delegates could abandon Carter and support far and the 1972 convention was contentious, though him. Kennedy’s effort failed, and Jimmy Carter was not as chaotic as 1968. Although I voted for Shirley re-nominated. But the raucous contentiousness cost us dearly and Jimmy Carter lost badly in November. balance between efficiency and effectiveness. On the 1984 Convention: subject of delegate selection, our recommendation After the 1980 loss there was a great deal of that the vote of unpledged delegates should mirror the consternation among Democrats, especially in the pledged delegates from jurisdictions was rejected. South. The DNC established the Commission on They accepted our recommendation to lower the Presidential Nominations, and Governor James Hunt percentage of unpledged delegates. of North Carolina was named the Chairman. Our Let me be clear, our delegate selection process colleague, David Price, was Hunt’s top staffer on the is not rigged. It is transparent to the public and open Commission. for participation for all who wish to declare Governor Hunt proposed loosening the much- themselves Democrats. There are three questions, disputed “binding” Rule 11 (H) to permit party however, that we should all ask ourselves as we leaders and elected officials to become delegates approach the 2016 Convention and consider whether without requiring a prior declaration of preference. or not to allow the continuation of unpledged Kennedy supporters and women’s groups opposed. delegates: In her arguments against Hunt’s proposal, Susan Estrich, claimed that these “super-delegates” would Number (1), Do we want to force party leaders be overwhelmingly white and male, thusly coining and elected officials to compete against their the term. constituents and party activists for delegate The Hunt Commission, however, moved slots to our national conventions? forward and created a new group of delegates that would go to the convention unpledged but would be Number (2), Do we wish to force our elected limited to approximately 14% of delegates. It also officials to jeopardize their candidacies by modified Rule 11(H), to read “Delegates…pledged to declaring their presidential preferences in the a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience middle of their campaigns? reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.” These rules remained pretty much unchanged Number (3), Should we expect party leaders over 20 years. And like the word “quota” the term and elected officials to give unbridled support “super-delegates” is nowhere in our rules. Both were to presidential nominees they had no role in used as pejoratives. Unfortunately, the “super- selecting? delegates” term was resurrected in 2004 and took on a life of its own during the 2008 campaign. I often quote the George Santayana admonition; “If we fail to learn the lessons of history, 2016 Convention: we are bound to repeat them.” We learned some After the 2008 Convention, Democratic lessons from our history of delegate selection. I Nominee Barack Obama urged the Democratic sincerely hope we do not forget or ignore them. National Committee (DNC) to take another look at our nominating process. The DNC created the James E. Clyburn D-SC. Democratic Change Commission and Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri and I were named Co- Chairmen. We held extensive discussions. Some of our recommendations were accepted by the Rules Committee and some were not. The Rules Committee accepted our schedule for Primaries and Caucuses that allowed a Pre-Primary window in February and some of our proposals that would strike a better