Even Closer, Even Longer: What If the 2008 Democratic Primary Used Republican Rules?
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Brian Arbour
Did the Democratic rules for delegate allocation cost Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination in 2008? Did these same rules prolong the contest, creating further division within the Democratic Party? I address these two questions by “re-running" the 2008 Democratic primaries under a different set of delegate allocation rules—the ones used in the Republican nominating contest. Under these rules, Hillary Clinton would have held a four-delegate advantage at the end of the primaries and caucuses. The race would then have been decided by delegates selected at state conventions and by the Republican version of “super-delegates." So while Clinton would have benefitted under Republican rules, the use of these rules would not have given her the nomination. And Republican rules would have produced a more prolonged and divisive contest for the Democratic nomination.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Article
- Perception and Reality in Congressional Earmarks
- Institutional Structure and Democratic Values: A Research Note on a Natural Experiment
- Even Closer, Even Longer: What If the 2008 Democratic Primary Used Republican Rules?
- How Barack Obama's Votes Beat Hillary Clinton's Votes in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Contest: Not Malapportionment, But Turnout Variation and the Florida Effect
- Campaign Microtargeting and the Relevance of the Televised Political Ad
- The Obama Effect: Patterns of Geographic Clustering in the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections
- U.S. Health Care and Real Health in Comparative Perspective: Lessons from Abroad
- Review
- Review of The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Presidential Campaigns
Articles in the same Issue
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Article
- Perception and Reality in Congressional Earmarks
- Institutional Structure and Democratic Values: A Research Note on a Natural Experiment
- Even Closer, Even Longer: What If the 2008 Democratic Primary Used Republican Rules?
- How Barack Obama's Votes Beat Hillary Clinton's Votes in the 2008 Democratic Presidential Contest: Not Malapportionment, But Turnout Variation and the Florida Effect
- Campaign Microtargeting and the Relevance of the Televised Political Ad
- The Obama Effect: Patterns of Geographic Clustering in the 2004 and 2008 Presidential Elections
- U.S. Health Care and Real Health in Comparative Perspective: Lessons from Abroad
- Review
- Review of The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Presidential Campaigns
