The California Scenesetter
Los Angeles — Tonight the road to the White House goes via California.
As the crowds for tonight’s historic debate gather outside the Kodak Theatre, the role of California in electing the next U.S. President is inescapable. The final Republican Debate last night (see my posts below from the Reagan Library) took place in nearby Simi Valley.
Tonight’s debate, in the hall where the Oscars are usually handed out, may give the winner the world’s most important political award.
California has the largest number of Convention delegates to be awarded to both parties’ political conventions.
And the largest number of Electoral College votes for President.
And the most political contributions. (CNN’s excellent bar graphs help tell the story.)
Now, with the California Republican and Democratic primaries taking place next Tuesday, along with votes in 23 other states, this state finally enjoys the advantage of timing. Unlike earlier Presidential election years, when this state held its primaries in June, long after the Republicans and Democrats usually had selected a de facto nominee through votes in other states’ primaries, this year the way California votes really does matter.
In fact, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could hardly contain his satisfaction yesterday, speaking to reporters at the Reagan Library, that this state “finally is playing its proper role.”
2,225 delegate votes are needed to win the Democratic nomination.
441 delegates will come from California — 18 per cent of the delegates needed to win the nomination.
Then it gets more complicated. There will be 3 to 7 delegates allocated to each of California’s 53 Congressional Districts (CDs). In addition, 40 CDs will each get 1 Alternate. Delegates are allocated to each Presidential candidate who receives 15% or more of the vote in a given Congressional District in the primary.
241 of California’s 441 delegates are elected based on the share of the vote the candidates for President receive in those districts. 81 delegates are elected “at-large” and go to the winner of the statewide vote.
The remaining 119 delegates are selected (not elected). These include 66 “super delegates” (Members of Congress, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Members, and a former DNC Chair), 48 Pledged Party Leaders/Elected Officials (PLEOs) committed to candidates who receive at least 15% of the statewide vote and apportioned by their share of the vote. Another 5 are also appointed who are “unpledged” to any candidate.
In other years, these details don’t make much difference. This year, they may be the difference.