Will there still be super delegates in the convention?

[question everything]

These are members of Congress and other higher ups who automatically vote?

[elleng]

1. Probably. They're surely NOT going to give up their power

to little We the People.

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Why wouldn't there be this time?

[question everything]

3. I don't know. Things change (nt)

[Capt. Obvious]

5. Yes, but that's a rather huge change

I'm sure it would be all over this website for starters.

[hrmjustin]

4. Yes.

[Gothmog]

6. The DNC rules are increasing the number of delegates selected by the party

I am told that the number of delegates from my Senate District went down because the party wants to be able to name more heavy hitters as delegates which means that there will be superdelegates

[HooptieWagon]

7. Some SDs are in the bag for Clinton,

But I'm pretty sure there will be more uncommitted than in '08.

[question everything]

9. Many were for Hillary in 2008

Until Jesse Jackson Jr. - before being committee to rehab and to jail - started putting pressure on members of the black congressional caucus to pledge for "the brother."

So you never know.

[whatthehey]

8. Sure - and they'll still have < 20% of the votes and no override/veto authority

And still have the ability to vote againsdt the establishment favorite if they choose, just like they did last time.

[Igel]

10. Of course not. Words matter, right?

And if you look at the call for delegates the word "super delegate" (with variant hyphenation) never appears. So the answer is no. The word was used in 2008, BTW. It was deemed offensive because of what it stood for and removed.

What it stood for, its referent, however, remained. The official phrase is "leadership and elected official delegate". They can be pledged or unpledged. If pledged, the abbreviation is often used: PLEO. They vote as instructed, at least on the first ballot, we assume. They are sent to the convention as a kind of political perk.

Pledged delegates' numbers are at-large delegates x 0.15. So they're actually under 15% of the total.

There are unpledged ones that are free to vote their conscience. They are sent to help the party behaves as they see fit, to be sure, but also to exert a moderating or time-averaging influence, respect for those who know more and have more experience than many rank-and-file voters. It doesn't always work and they can be bribed or manipulated, and they, too, can follow fads.

Unpledged delegates vary as to source and number.

Take TX as an example (since I live here): 181 "base delegates", + 27 PLEOS (15% of 181). They all vote as instructed, even though 27 of them would have been called "super delegates" at one time.

TX also has 33 unpledged leadership and elected official delegates. They vote as they see fit. These include DNC members and the TX Congressional delegation. We have no (D) governor, so we don't get that add-on vote. We have two "distinguished party leaders." So in this regard, states aren't precisely equal: The % unpledged delegates/total delegates varies a bit with over/under-representation in Congress, more or fewer distinguished party leaders, DNC representation, or who's in the governor's slot.

Link to rules and regs: http://demrulz.org/?dl_id=366

There's a handy table on page 63.

[question everything]

11. Fascinating. Thank you for the detailes explanation

While most of us who do not attend the national convention - at most, we make it to district convention - we don't follow these rules that closely.

Now, in 2016, based on your explanation, I certainly will.

[MineralMan]

12. Yes. That's built into the structure of the Convention.

There won't be any changes for the 2016 Convention in that regard. They aren't called that officially, though.