How Delegates Are Chosen

Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas last week pointed a monitory finger at the forthcoming national conventions. Said Democrat Douglas: "The delegates to these conventions will not really represent the people. They will have been chosen by the party bosses and the professional political leaders in most of the states."

Paul Douglas had in mind a bill he has introduced in the Senate. Its purpose: to encourage more presidential preference primaries in the states this year. But what the Illinois Senator and some others really want is embodied in a proposal by Florida's Democratic Senator George Smathers: a U.S. constitutional amendment to establish national presidential primaries and abolish national party conventions./-

The search for a better way to nominate presidential candidates is almost as old as the presidency itself. In the early presidential elections, candidates were selected by members of Congress sitting in caucus. In 1824, Andrew Jackson and his followers rebelled against "King Caucus," and paved the way for the convention system. In 1905, the Wisconsin legislature passed a law for direct election of all delegates to national conventions. In 1910, Oregon adopted the first presidential preference primary. In 1913, President Wilson urged virtually the same plan that Senator Smathers now proposes.

Then the direct primary tide began to recede. Iowa, Vermont, Montana repealed their presidential preference laws; they had found that most of their citizens did not bother to vote in presidential primaries.

The Present Setup. Now, the 48 states are using a hodgepodge of primaries, conventions and committee meetings to select their delegates (1,205 to the Republican convention, up to 1,590 to the Democratic).

Twelve states have presidential preference primaries, in which candidates' names appear on the ballot (e.g., New Hampshire). But in no state does the preference vote really bind the delegates.

Sixteen states elect some or all of their delegates in primaries. In only two (Minnesota, Ohio) does the ballot clearly show which presidential candidate each prospective delegate favors. In others, the voter either sees no indication on the ballot or is confronted with some more or less vague bit of prose. In Oregon, where the candidate for delegate may have a twelve-word slogan after his name on the ballot, one 1948 aspirant offered the voter this guidance: "You may have full confidence I will do my duty as delegate."

Thirty-two states name some or all of their delegates by convention and political committee. In some states (e.g., Washington), the process begins with precinct caucuses, which elect representatives to county meetings. The county meetings then send delegates to a state convention, which elects the national delegates.

Variation & Combination. There are almost as many variations in this procedure as there are states. Democratic and Republican practice differs in some states (e.g., Alabama, where the Democrats' delegates are elected in a primary, the Republicans' at conventions). New York, which sends the biggest delegations (96 Republican, 98 Democratic), uses a combination of committee and primary selection. State committees of both parties select delegates at large; congressional district delegates are elected in primaries.

In spite of widespread dissatisfaction with the present setup, and almost universal ignorance of its ramifications, the Douglas-Smathers proposals have little chance of adoption.

/- Under the present British system, there are no primaries, and every candidate must be approved by the national headquarters of his party before he can campaign as a party member. The British system produces both the assets and the liabilities of ironclad party discipline.

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