As a formal matter, it's true the delegates would be unbound and Harris wouldn't automatically be the nominee. But these pie in the sky schemes for some American Idol competition are nonsense, because no matter what the formal process is, nobody who matters will challenge Harris for the nomination.
Every single one of these fantasy football picks--Newsom, Whitmer, etc.--would endorse Harris the day Biden drops out. And then it doesn't matter what over-engineered 'mini-primary' scheme you come up with, she's running effectively unopposed and is thus the presumptive nominee.
Wow, you're right. This is one of those smart ideas where once you hear it, it's so obviously true, that you can't believe you didn't realize it before.
also any process you can dream up for a contested convention will be subsumed by conversations in the background to pick a winner anyway (and that winner will be Harris).
like, these all fail to do what the authors want it to do (pick someone other than Harris, but with extra steps and flashing lights) on a basic technical level, never mind anything else
Right. The idea the decision would actually, substantively be left to the minor party functionaries who signed up just to be there in-person for the speeches is totally out of touch with who the delegates really are. They're not free agents and don't represent the party's voters in any real sense.
It's political nerd wish-casting for a 19th C. style convention ignoring the reality that the delegates already chosen are not 19th C. style delegates.
That happened because California had extremely easy ballot access, so a bunch of joke candidates could file and get on the ballot. Not really applicable here. There's no 'getting on the ballot' except at the convention with some minimum threshold of delegate support, which nobody else would meet.
Under this proposal (which is just some memo this professor wrote), it'd be the top six with no minimum threshold. So, like, even one delegate potentially. But that's dumb and not how it would actually work. You set a minimum threshold, 10% of the delegates or whatever.
I don't have it offhand but I recall there's already something like this in the DNC rules. To be recognized for the roll call a candidate must have, I want to say one fifth but something like that, of the delegates co-nominating them. That's how you make sure you're not flooded with fringe nobodies.
They won’t, but it would probably be healthier if they did. A refusal to run a proper primary process has contributed to this mess. An abbreviated one-month primary fight would probably do them a lot of good, and generate momentum and engagement
You’re not wrong. But running their one true candidate without serious interrogation has been a structural problem for the party going back to at least 2008. It produced one breakout nobody with Obama, but it hadn’t been healthy
It’s a party that desperately needs a knock-down internal fight
