Upcoming 2008 Caucuses and Primaries

A Caucus

• Pennsylvania Primary
• April 22
• 158 Democratic delegates; 71 Republican delegates

• Guam Democratic caucus
• May 3
• 4 Democratic delegates

• Indiana primary
• May 6
• 72 Democratic delegates; 27 Republican delegates

• North Carolina primary
• May 6
• 115 Democratic delegates; 66 Republican delegates

Source: Newsvine

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Big Primary Day?

Lots of hype, punditry, predictions and analysis floating around the press today as another set of primaries is upon us. Let's take a look at some of the headlines, yes more headlines:

• 8 Questions That Today's Primaries Could Answer [WashPo]
• POLL: Should She Stay or Should She Go?: By a Large Margin, Dems Want Clinton to Remain in Race Even if She Loses Texas or Ohio [ABC News]
• Democrats, Today Could Be The Day: Obama Hopes Ohio, Texas Primaries Will Ensure Nomination; Clinton Tries To Stay Alive [CBS News]
• Clinton, Obama Face Day of Reckoning [AP/Newsvine]
• Record Turnout Expected in Ohio Primary [AlterNet]
• US contenders in key polling day [BBC News]

According to the media every primary or caucus since Iowa "could determine the Democratic candidacy." But the reality is it has been a close race and the majority of the media is milking it for all it's worth.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Super Delegate Transparency Project

The Super Delegate Transparency Project Wiki

Lots of talk concerning super delegates on the intertubes these days.

Some folks are downright pissed that approximately 800 "super delegates" -- who's "votes count approximately 100,000 times more than yours and mine" -- could decide the Democratic nomination and not the people -- the voters.

So some decided to do something about it by calling for transparency among the super delegates. Jennifer Nix and Mark Myers of LiteraryOutpost.com in collaboration with Chris Bowers from OpenLeft.com have set up a wiki aptly named the Super Delegate Transparency Project. The aim is "to provide citizens with visibility to how the Super-Delegates could impact the outcome of the primary."

The meat and potatoes of the wiki is the main table. It lists:

• The State
• The districts in each state and each district's:
• Obama vote
• Clinton vote
• If there is a super delegate and who it is
• If the super delegate has pledged Obama or Clinton
• Super delegate status
• Disparity
• Totals

This project appears new, containing little data. But anyone can join and contribute:

To join, simply create a wikidot account and send your wikidot user name to mark.c.myers@gmail.com. Please also include a brief note on how you heard about the project.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

Time: The Page and NPR: Election 2008

Just recently came across Time's The Page and NPR's interactive map, simple titled Election 2008. While not all that similar, these two sites could quickly become staples for political junkies.

The Page, by Mark Halperin, is more like a blog and/or vlog. In the upper right corner is a daily "PageCast" where Mark proclaims a certain number of "things to watch for in politics today". Below that is a political schedule that breaks down the day's events by the minute -- mostly listing where certain political figures will appear. The site's meat -- found in the middle -- is straight up political posts, primarily in the form of quick summaries with links to articles found elsewhere.

An interactive U.S. map adorns NPR's Election 2008 subsite. Roll the mouse over any state to get its primary or caucus date(s). Click on a state and you get the following info about the state (and what better way to say what's going on on that site than to use bullet points) :

• Number of delegates for each party
  
• Past years' primary data for each party
  
• A fun "Did You Know" primary fact
  
• Recent news stories
  
• Related Sites
• A "Learn More About" link to find out where each state ranks among other states on various topics like:
• State Unemployment
  
• Uninsured Population
• Unauthorized Migrants
  
• Gas Price
• Population
• Etc, etc, etc.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation

2008 Primary Schedule

I've chosen to pretty much ignore the 2008 presidential race so far on PoliticalReps.com. But the time is fast approaching . . . for the primaries.

Instead of trying to keep up with all the date changes, we'll let Connecticut Bob do it. So without further ado, here is the latest primary (and caucus) schedule:

Democratic primary and caucus schedule

January 2008
3 Iowa caucus (moved from Jan. 14th reported from several sources, but still not 100%)
15 Michigan (on Nov. 8th, a judge ruled the change isn't legal, but Democratic sources insist the primary will be held on the 15th...stay tuned for more details)
19 Nevada caucus
22 New Hampshire Primary (very slight chance it may change to
possibly Jan. 8th if other states move their primary schedule up despite DNC rules)
29 South Carolina Primary
29 Florida Primary (may be penalized for breaking party rules, which may result in losing delegates)

February 2008
Super Tuesday - February 5th
Alabama, Alaska caucus, Arizona, California, Colorado caucus, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho caucus, Illinois, Kansas caucus, Minnesota caucus, Missouri , New Jersey, New Mexico caucus, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah

Later February 2008
9 Louisiana, Nebraska caucus, Washington caucus
10 Maine caucus
12 D.C., Maryland, Virginia
19 Hawaii, Wisconsin

March 2008
4 Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas
8 Wyoming
11 Mississippi

April-June 2008
April 1 Pennsylvania
May 6 Indiana
May 13 West Virginia
May 20 Kentucky, Oregon
June 1 Puerto Rico
June 3 Montana, South Dakota

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Republican primary and caucus schedule

January 2008
3 Iowa
5 Wyoming (split - 12 of 28 delegates)
15 Michigan
19 Nevada, South Carolina
22 New Hampshire (will probably move earlier)
29 Florida

February 2008
Super Tuesday - February 5th
Alabama, Alaska , Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia

Later February 2008
9 Louisiana, Kansas, Washington (18 of 40)
12 D.C., Maryland, Virginia
19 Wisconsin, Washington (19 of 40)

The rest of 2008
March 4 Massachusetts, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Texas
March 11 Mississippi
April 22 Pennsylvania
May 6 Indiana, North Carolina
May 10 Wyoming (16 of 28)
May 13 West Virginia, Nebraska
May 17 Maine
May 20 Kentucky, 20 Oregon
May 27 Idaho
June 3 South Dakota, New Mexico
June 6 Hawaii
June 28 Nebraska

Later events

* August 25 to August 28, 2008 - 2008 Democratic National Convention, in Denver.
* September 1 to September 4, 2008 - 2008 Republican National Convention, held in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
* November 6, 2008 - Election Day.
* December 15, 2008 - Members of the U.S. Electoral College meet in each state to cast their votes for President.
* January 6, 2009 - Electoral votes officially tallied before both Houses of Congress.
* January 20, 2009 - Inauguration Day. A New Beginning for our nation.

As Connecticut Bob says, "Check back often for further updates as the states try to juggle the schedule in the rush to front-load their own contest."

Project Vote Smart also lists the "state presidential primary and caucus dates." But it was last updated 10/25/07.

-Dippold

Political Online Reputation