In the race for all-important numbers of delegates, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton were the big winners in New York’s presidential primaries Tuesday.
In the winner-take-all race for the GOP, McCain is the unofficial winner of New York’s 101 Republican delegates. Democrats get a proportional share of the state’s delegates, with Clinton of New York, taking 139 of the state’s 232 pledged delegates.
“You voted not just to make history,” Clinton told her supporters a rally in New York city, “but to remake America.”
McCain also rallied his supporters. “I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party frontrunner for the nomination for president,” he said. “And I don’t mind it one bit.”
New York was among 24 states to hold their primaries or caucuses on Tuesday. In the national picture, McCain is in the lead for the Republican nomination with 615 total delegates. He will need to reach a total of 1,191 delegates to secure the nomination.
On the Democratic side, Clinton maintained her lead over Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois with at least 825 total delegates. But the Democratic contest remains neck and neck. A candidate will need a total of 2,025 delegates to secure the nomination.
Delegates are the real treasure in presidential primary campaigns. That’s because delegates to the parties’ national nominating conventions actually choose the party’s nominee.
Like general presidential elections, primaries are not decided by popular vote. Rather, candidates’ success in a given state awards delegates from that state to their party’s nominating convention. At the conventions, the delegates vote for the party’s nomination for president.
In New York, the Republican winner is automatically awarded the state’s 101 delegates.
The process by which New York chooses its delegates to the Democratic convention is more complicated. The state sends a total of 281 delegates to the Democratic convention. Of the 281 delegates, 232 are awarded to candidates based on the primary results. The remaining 49 are “super delegates,” party members who vote at the convention but are not committed to a specific candidate.
The process for awarding candidates the regular delegates works like this:
Each congressional district is allotted a certain number of delegates to send to the convention. Any candidate receiving at least 15 percent of the vote in a district’s primary is automatically awarded at least one delegate. The remaining delegates are then divided among the candidates, with the candidates receiving more votes being awarded more delegates.
In this election, the contest is down to two Democratic candidates. So, presuming each gets at least 15 percent of the vote in each district, the delegates will be divided based on percentage of the vote.
But the process in New York can have another wrinkle. The state allows a voter to vote for both a candidate and for delegates for any of the candidates.
“You could theoretically split your vote,” said Kristi Andersen, professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. For example, a voter, said Andersen, could vote for Clinton but also vote for a specific Obama delegate that he or she wished to send to the convention. That, said Andersen, would be a vote for Clinton but also a vote to send a specific Obama delegate to the DNC and, ultimately, a vote for Obama.
In addition to its 232 regular delegates that New York will send to the Democratic convention, the state will also send 49 “super delegates.” These are chosen by the party and include high up party officials as well as current and former elected officials. Unlike the delegates that are committed to a certain candidate due to the primary results, “super delegates” are free to choose how they vote at the convention.
“That the party establishment saying: ‘We want a role in how the candidates are chosen,’” said Andersen.
Clinton’s lead in delegates over Obama going into Tuesday’s primaries, said Andersen, was from endorsements of Clinton by “super delegates.” She suspects, Andersen said, that the 842 “super delegates” attending the convention a good thing for Clinton. They will connect more with her because she is a longtime veteran of Democratic Party politics, Andersen said.
Clinton’s win in New York did not clinch the nomination. But it put her on the right track. She will need 1,200 more delegates in the remaining contests to clinch the nomination.
(Liam Migdail-Smith is a junior newspaper major.)
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