Inside the Pledged Delegate Process


1207658562Super Tuesday has come and gone, but Massachusetts’ role in the 2008 presidential race is far from over. On Saturday, Democrats around the state met in community centers and music halls to choose the human beings that represent those pledged delegates we’ve been talking about so much.

Our MySpace (and now Facebook!) friend and City Councilor Mike Ross will represent Barack Obama for the 8th congressional district at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Ross invited us to take part in democracy in action, but since we still haven’t gotten on the Massachusetts voter rolls after being disenfranchised in our home state, we were unable to attend the Massachusetts-only affair. Despite our absence, Ross still managed to secure a spot on the floor in Denver, after an hours-long procedure.

He didn’t go it alone, however. Ross teamed up with Giovanna Negretti, Sean Reilly, Gloria Fox, and alternate Dorothea Jones to form the Coalition for Change. The team of delegate hopefuls made up buttons and convinced their friends to attend the caucus and vote for them. After several rounds of balloting (the Dem caucus isn’t modeled after the “stand in the corner” Iowa caucuses) team Coalition for Change emerged victorious and will all be attending the convention.

We assumed that being a delegate earned you an all-expenses-paid trip to Denver in August, but the Coalition for Change will have to pay their own way out West for the big show. We’ll keep you posted on any bake sales the delegates have to fund their trip. (Or pole dancing lessons. They are Democrats, after all.)

We asked Ross what he thought of Hillary Clinton’s remark last week that there’s no such thing as a pledged delegate. Would a phone call from charming cad Bill Clinton convince him to disavow Obama?

“He can try, but I’m an Obama guy through and through,” Ross told us. “We’re going as committed delegates. The Coalition for Change is an un-wooable coalition.”