We are in the Presidential Primary Election year moving towards the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver on August 25-28th and the National Election on November 4. But first we must select our Delegates who will represent the votes that were cast on February 12.
The Delegate Selection Plan provides the methods for the selection of national delegates and alternates in each of five categories (District Level, Party Leader and Elected Officials, At-Large, Unpledged Add-on, and Unpledged Automatic), including guidelines, procedural safeguards and Affirmative Action requirements, which have been incorporated into the selection process. Please view the full Plan online at http://vadems.3cdn.net/ecf477bc9f400c01f7_apm6ib0ve.pdf.
To simplify, there are two kinds of delegates:
1) State Delegates, who are elected at the local caucuses, then go to the District Convention and Virginia State Convention.
2) National Delegates who are elected at either the District or State conventions to go to the Democratic National Convention.
The Virginia State Convention will be held on June 14th in Hampton, VA. We will first hold County and City caucuses to select a total of 2,000 State Delegates and 1,000 alternates to the Congressional District and State Conventions. These State Delegates and alternates are apportioned using the allocation formula described in the Delegate Selection Plan representing the votes in the February primary. You can see the number of State Delegates allocated for each Congressional District at
http://vadems.3cdn.net/03152779d92f911d13_pjm6bx1us.pdf
Chesterfield County is in both the 4th and 7th Congressional Districts.
Our Chesterfield County caucus will be an unassembled caucus held on Monday, April 21st beginning at 7:00 P.M. and ending at 8:30 P.M. at the Central Public Library on Lori Road near the Chesterfield Courthouse. Newspaper (may be a release, not an ad) /email announcements of the Caucus will go out by April 5-7.
The delegate application form is here as a PDF file and as an MS-Word document. Delegate applicants must return forms by 5 pm on April 16 and are encouraged to solicit voters to attend. At our County Caucus we will elect District and State Convention Delegates and Alternates to attend the May 10th 7th Congressional District Convention and the May 17th 4th Congressional District Convention, and the June 14th State Convention.
Our Chesterfield County Delegate breakdown to send to the 4th and 7th Congressional District Convention is:
4th District
33 Total Delegates: 9 Clinton / 11 Obama
16 Total Alternates: 3 Clinton / 11 Obama
7th District
40 Total Delegates: 13 Clinton / 15 Obama
20 Total Alternates: 6 Clinton / 15 Obama
After all of the County and City caucuses are completed, the Congressional District Conventions are held. The 4th Congressional District Convention will be held on May 17th, 2008, 10AM to Noon and the 7th Congressional District will be held May 10th, 12 noon. At the 11 District Conventions throughout the state, a total of 54 National Convention Delegates and 11 Alternates will be chosen based on the apportionment formula described in the Delegate Selection Plan (see the chart on page 9 of the Delegate Selection Plan). Note – apportionment relates to how many delegates a jurisdiction gets; allocation relates to how many delegates a candidate gets.
Our Chesterfield Delegate breakdown to send to the State and National conventions are:
4th District
4 Total Delegates: 1 Clinton / 4 Obama
1 Total Alternates: 1 Obama
7th District
4 Total Delegates: 2 Clinton / 3 Obama
1 Total Alternates: 1 Obama
The next step is the selection of additional National Convention Delegates at the State Convention in June by the state delegates including: 2 Unpledged Add-on Delegates, 11 Pledged Party Leaders and Elected Officials (PLEOs), and 18 At-Large Delegates and 3 At-Large Alternates. In addition, the Virginia delegation will include 16 automatic Unpledged PLEOs (Superdelegates), including individuals such as the Governor, members of Congress, our DNC members and other DNC members who live in Virginia.
At-Large Delegates and Alternates (18/3)
18 Total Delegates: 6 Clinton / 12 Obama
3 Total Alternates: 2 Clinton / 2 Obama
Pledged PLEOS (11/ 0)
11 Total Delegates: 4 Clinton / 7 Obama
The Virginia delegation to the National Convention will total 101 delegates and 14 alternates. They will travel to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver to represent Virginia and to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate.
