Oregon Public Broadcasting

The chair of Oregon’s Democratic Party has been revisiting the procedures for picking a presidential candidate. April Baer reports.

Meredith Wood-Smith was part of a panel asked to suggest changes for the primary calendar, caucus structure, and the delegates who kept election-watchers guessing in the red-hot Obama-Clinton primary race of 2008. 

The automatic or unpledged delegates were commonly referred to as superdelegates.

In Oregon, they didn’t swing the state. But in other places, some considered bucking state primary winners to support candidates of their own choosing.

Wood Smith says the new rule changes would require all delegates to support the primary winner. 

Meredith Wood Smith   “People want to believe and perceive that the process follows a popular view, not an insider view. That’s what we attempted to do.”

Wood Smith says the role of so-called superdelegates was overblown. She thinks it’s more important to encourage states to move primaries to one coordinated month, March.

A Democratic Committee will still have to approve any suggested changes, later this year.