The Making of the Delegates, 1968·1980

by Warren J. Mitofsky and Martin Plissner The Making of the Delegates, 1968·1980 "I am her Highness' dog at Kew. what side of the 1980 Democratic power struggle a Pray tell me, Sir, whose dog are you ?" sometime reformer might have been on, he or she could Inscription for the collar of a favorite easily find it ironic how efforts to transform the process poodle of Queen Anne, by Alexander can work at cross. purposes with each other and with Pope. those engaged in them. for the past dozen years, a period which coincides with the changing of the process in both parties, CBS t this summer's Democratic Convention in New News has been polling delegates to the conventions. A York City, CBS News polled virtually every dele The data from this polling, never reported in one place gate on matters ranging from their race and sex to before, provide a useful perspective on what has hap where they stood on price controls and the MX missile. pened since 1968 to this country's unique instrument The poll gave reporters and analysts a rich supply of for nominating its chief official. numbers on which to ruminate: 49 percent of the dele for most of the 150 year history of presidential gates, they reported, were women; 15 percent were conventions, national parties paid little attention to blacks; 97 percent were formally committed to a presi who or what the delegates were or how they got there. dential candidate, and so on. When left to their own devices, which was most of the Each of these numbers represented a sharp con time, state parties generally sent delegates populated trast to the Democratic conventions of earlier years. As by their principal party and public officials, their most such they were the consequence of a hard struggle, generous contributors and lesser servants whose turn mostly by "reform" elements in the party, to reshape for reward had come. Presidential candidates who had the rules for selecting delegates. High among their cultivated support in the state might influence the goals was to make the national conventions more dem choice of delegates (especially in the handful of states ographically representative of the party's voters-and with binding primaries), but the normal practice of with respect to women and blacks, this convention was such candidates was to solicit, not to challenge, the a great success. existing party leadership. That was the system that Equally important to the reformers has been a prevailed, with one or two exceptions, through the con desire to wrest control from local party leaders by mak ventions of 1968. At the 1968 conventions, as at most ing the delegates more politically representative of the before them, the great majority of delegates had no primaries and state conventions which sent them. That formal commitment to support any candidate for presi effort, too, seemed triumphant in 1980. It should also dent. And most (80 percent at both 1968 conventions) be noted that, while Republicans have attracted less were white, middle-aged men. attention by it, their own conventions too have changed Under the system as it stood in 1968, it was pos over the same period in similar ways. sible for Hubert Humphrey to win the Democratic Yet how real a victory for "reform" have these nomination without winning (or even entering) a pri changes been? Even some of the original reformers are mary. And it was possible (though it didn't happen) for now asking, as many of them went to Madison Square Richard Nixon, who had won nine out of twelve pri Garden anxious to break open the convention for Sena maries, to lose the nomination to Nelson Rockefeller or tor Kennedy but found themselves caught up in the Ronald Reagan-each of whom had won exactly one. coils of their own rules changes. And regardless of It was also possible at both conventions for more than PUBLIC OPINION, OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER 1980 37 five out of six delegates to be men, 97 percent over the 1972 " guidelines" calling for representation of thirty and for states with large black populations to minorities, women and the young (identified as people send only one or two black delegates or even none at thirty and under) "in reasonable relationship to their all. presence in the population." Most people called them "quotas." The Delegates of 1968 At about the same time the Republicans, making At the last of the conventions of the old order, you less noise, were traveling the same road. At the 1968 were almost sure to be a delegate if you were a sitting convention, while the struggle for the nomination was governor, more likely than not to be one if you were a occupying most people, a non· discrimination clause U.S. senator, a little less likely if you were a member was added to the party's rules. Following it, the GOP of the House of Representatives. At both conventions, inserted this provision : " Republican State Committees at least one out of four delegates was a lawyer. Much shall take positive action to achieve the broadest par more partisan was another occupation: union official. ticipation in party affairs." The sponsors were con Over a hundred of them were Democratic delegates; cerned about their party's loss of its once sizable share none was a Republican delegate. This was how some of of the nation's black vote. Lily-white Southern delega the principal occupations at the two conventions com tions in 1964 and 1968 (the Northern delegations were pared : not much different) had not helped. Southern state chairmen took the rule seriously, O ccupation Democrats Republicans actively recruiting black delegates in 1972. So did Law 28% 22% Northern party officials. The national chairman, Robert Government 13 13 Dole, aware of what was happening in the other party, Business 27 40 also started a personal campaign to get more women T eachers 8 2 elected to the 1972 convention. Because there was no Union officials 4 0 contest for the nomination, it was relatively easy to The high incidence of teachers at the Democratic Con pick delegates for race, age or sex. vention was something unlikely to have been found at The Delegates of 1972 previous conventions and was attributable to a high degree to the role played by the educational community When the parties gathered in 1972, the changes were in Senator McCarthy's campaign. Teachers have con both obvious and large: blacks and women at the Dem tinued to be a major element at Democratic Conven ocratic Convention were three times the number in tions- reflected in Senator McGovern's large academic 1968, and at the Republican Convention, were twice the following in 1972 and the exceptional activism in Dem number. At the same time, in both parties, fewer gov ocratic nominating politics since then of the National ernors and congressmen showed up. At the Demo Education Association and the American Federation of cratic Convention polling revealed some striking Teachers. changes not directly related to quotas. Lawyers-the Two-thirds of the delegates to both 1968 conven traditional ruling occupation of U.S. politics-plunged tions were attending their first one. At both conven from 28 percent in 1968 to a mere 12 percent at George tions the great majority were college graduates. Nearly McGovern's convention. Business people dropped from half had attended graduate schools. Most striking, 27 percent to 8 percent. Though leaders of organized however, were the figures on age, sex and race: labor had been among the earliest and most vigorous critics of the quotas, union officials (at 5 percent) were Democrats Republicans even more generously represented in 1972 than at the Women 13% 16% previous convention. This time CBS News also polled Blacks 5 2 for union membership. Sixteen percent of the delegates, Under 30 3 4 it turned out, were members-roughly the same as in the voting-age population. We also polled for ances The First Reform try and found the United Kingdom first, Ireland a close After the 1968 conventions, the CBS News polling data second, Germany third, Italy fourth. Thirty-nine per came into the hands of the Democratic party's Com cent called themselves Protestant, 26 percent Catho mission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection, the lic, 9 percent Jewish. Holders of high public office were body initially chaired by George McGovern. Original fewer than at most conventions. ly, its chief mandate was to make future conventions more reflective of the presidential choices of the party's The Counter-Reform rank and file. But evidences of discrimination also Without the benefit of guidelines or quotas, the Repub came within its jurisdiction, and the discovery that licans in 1972 had quietly accomplished many of the women, blacks and young people had been so scantily same changes in the makeup of their convention which represented in Chicago eventually led to the most no the Democrats in some turmoil had achieved in theirs. torious of all the commission's innovations. These were While one of the most conservative of all Republican 38 PUBLIC OPINION, OCTOBER/ NOVEMBER 1980 c .9 ~ E Q; a. =- ~ "0 c: Ci a: ;o - ~ "0 c > (/) U) E ;:: U) a; Cl c <( U) 0 -' co0 "' conventions was renominating Richard Nixon and was to mmimize the political impact of having more Spiro Agnew, Republican moderates were once again women, blacks and younger people at the convention. quietly expanding the rule for " achieving the broadest Because, like everybody else, prospective delegates possible participation" in the party's future conven would usually have to sign away their presidential vote tions.

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