County political parties begin delegate selection process

Despite the 2016 presidential primaries being well underway, the selection of a candidate for the top political office in the U.S. will be finalized, technically, at the national conventions of both major political parties in the late summer. The process for choosing the final presidential candidate actually begins at the county level. County party organizations select delegates to their state party conventions. At the state convention, the delegates who will attend the national convention are elected, and the national convention delegates choose who will be their presidential candidate in the fall general election. The delegate selection process has already begun in Blaine County.

Despite all the hoopla regarding the current presidential primaries and upcoming national conventions, that’s not always how parties picked their candidates. Prior to the 1824 election, members of each party’s congressional caucus, sitting members in Congress, selected their party’s nominee to run for president. That year factions of the Democratic-Republican Party rejected their caucuses’ choice and backed other candidates. Soon other factions within the parties began to challenge the selection process. By the mid-1800’s both major parties (by then the Democratic and Republican parties) began holding national conventions to select their candidates for president.

Those early conventions were far from the more transparent processes now used by both parties. It was not uncommon, early on, for delegates attending a national convention to be controlled by party bosses and sometimes a ‘dark horse’ candidate overcame the choice of the ruling political bosses.

A few western states were the first to adopt primary elections in the late 1800’s. But even as late as 1968, when a large number of anti-Vietnam War supporters rallied to try and nominate Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota as the Democratic presidential candidate. That caused the Democratic Party to settle on the primary elections, in 1968, as the preferred way of selecting a presidential candidate. By 1972 the Republican Party had also adopted the primary election for selecting a presidential candidate. With only a few exceptions since that time, the national conventions have lost much of their old drama with a foregone winner usually obvious before the national conventions.

2016 was thought to be a possible case where a clear winner would not be obvious before the upcoming national conventions—early on for both major parties. While some candidates were sweeping the primary elections, delegates were being selected who were committed to other candidates. With the most recent primaries now settled and the national delegate process started, the prospect of a ‘floor fight’ at the national conventions seems to be waning…but, stranger things have happened in past years.

Blaine County has begun the

delegate selection process

A week ago the Blaine County Republican party held its county convention in Chinook. Don Richman, the County Chairman, said, “We had a good convention with nine delegates selected to attend the state convention. One local, Ralph Snider of the Hogeland area, has announced he will run at the state convention to be a delegate to the national convention.” The state Republican convention will be held in Billings on May 14. Richman said all delegates to the state and national conventions must pay their own travel and lodging expenses.

Richman added, “At Billings there will be a lot of competition from representatives of the various presidential campaigns to get delegates elected who are loyal to their presidential choice.” Per Richman, every delegate could become important for the final push to select a presidential candidate. He noted, “Last presidential election Blaine County had four slots for possible candidates to the national convention.” He wasn’t sure this year what that number would be.

Montana Republicans will send 27 delegates to the 2016 national convention. There will be 24 selected at the state convention and three are called ‘super delegates’—automatically selected because they are national office holders (Congressman) or state party officials. By party rules, all delegates are pledged to the Republican presidential candidate selected in the June 7 primary. If no clear winner emerges on the first ballot at the national convention, then delegates can support whichever candidate they favor. That’s why presidential campaigns will try to get sympathetic delegates selected, in case a clear winner doesn’t win the nomination on the first count of delegates.

Democrats in Blaine County will not have a county convention because there is no current functioning county Democratic committee. Nancy Keenan, the Executive Director for the Montana Democratic Party said by phone, “Because Blaine County has no county committee, there will be no county convention to select delegates to the state convention. But, any Democrat from Blaine County is welcome to come to the state convention and offer themselves as a candidate to the national convention. But they can’t vote on the national delegate selection or on certain other party-related issues, like the 2016 platform.” The official delegates to the state convention vote to select delegates to the national convention. The number of official delegates from each county is determined based on the percentage of Democratic voter turnout in the county during the last major national election.

Montana Democrats will hold their state convention the weekend after the June 7 primary. Montana will send a total of 27 delegates to the national convention—21 selected to reflect certain regions of the state and six ‘super delegates.’ The super delegates are party officials and national or statewide office holders, like Senator Tester and Governor Bullock. The 21 elected delegates to the national convention must vote for the presidential candidate favored by Democrats in the June 7 primary. Super delegates are not bound to a particular presidential candidate.

For both Montana and Democratic and Republican delegates to the national conventions, all must pay their own travel expenses. As to some media reports that presidential campaigns may try to influence loyalty by underwriting convention trip expenses, Democratic Executive Director Keenan said, “I think the idea that presidential campaigns would try to influence delegate loyalty in Montana is not an issue—for either party.”