The Democratic National Committee is putting together a Democratic Change Commission to review possible changes to the presidential nominating process. According to the Associated Press, DNC leaders want to reduce the number of superdelegates and "regain control of the primary calendar" ... I'm all for reducing the number of superdelegates and strictly limiting the number of states that can hold primaries or caucuses before March. But if we are going to increase the relative importance of pledged delegates, we need to be aware that the pledged delegate count does not necessarily reflect the will of the people. Longtime readers know that I am not a big fan of the caucus system even in Iowa, where voters and party officials have a lot of experience with it. I don't think any of the alleged benefits of caucuses outweigh the barriers to participation that caucuses create. Furthermore, no state but Iowa can claim any genuine party-building benefit from caucuses, because other states didn't have multiple campaigns organizing at the precinct level for months.

Labels: caucus, caucus dates