Rhode Island Democratic primary, 2008

The 2008 Rhode Island Democratic primary took place on March 4, 2008. It was an open primary. 21 delegates were awarded on a proportional basis and 11 "superdelegates", eight of which have announced support for Senator Hillary Clinton and two have committed to Senator Barack Obama, are also part of the RI delegation. [cite web |url=http://innovation.cq.com/primaries?tab=2 |title=CQ Politics Primary Guide |accessdate=2008-02-20 |work=CQ Politics]

Delegate breakdown

The Rhode Island Democratic Party sends 32 total delegates to the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Of those delegates, 21 are pledged and 11 are unpledged. The 21 pledged delegates are allocated (pledged) to vote for a particular candidate at the National Convention according to the results of Rhode Island's Democratic primary on March 4, 2008. The 11 unpledged delegates (popularly called "superdelegates" because their vote represents the decision of a single person rather than the regular delegate's vote representing the collective decision of many voters) are free to vote for any candidate at the National Convention and are selected by the Rhode Island Democratic Party's officials.

The 21 pledged delegates are further divided into 13 district delegates and 8 state-wide delegates. The 13 district delegates are divided among Rhode Island's 2 Congressional Districts and are allocated to the presidential candidates based on the primary results in each District. Congressional District 1 receives 6 delegates and Congressional District 2 receives 7 delegates. The 8 state-wide delegates are divided into 5 at-large delegates and 3 Party Leaders and Elected Officials (abbreviated PLEO). They are allocated to the presidential candidates based on the primary results state-wide.

Of the 11 unpledged delegates, 10 were selected in advance and 1 is selected at the State Executive Committee meeting on June 19, 2008. The delegates selected in advance are 6 Democratic National Committee members, Democratic U.S. Representatives from Rhode Island Patrick J. Kennedy (District 1) and James Langevin (District 2), and Democratic U.S. Senators from Rhode Island Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse. [cite web |title=Rhode Island Delegate Selection & Affirmative Action Plan For the 2008 Democratic National Convention |publisher=Rhode Island Democratic Party |url=http://www.ridemocrats.org/get-involved/2008convention/2008selectionplan.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2008-02-29] [cite web |title=Rhode Island Democrat Presidential Nominating Process |publisher=The Green Papers |date=2008-02-20 |url=http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/RI-D.phtml |accessdate=2008-02-29]

Polling

As of March 2, 2008, the most recent opinion polling of likely Democratic Primary participants shows Senator Clinton leading Senator Obama 42% to 37%, with 22% undecided. [cite web |url=http://www.insidepolitics.org/BrownPoll308.pdf |title=Rhode Island Democratic Presidential Primary |date=2008-03-02 |accessdate=2008-03-04 |work=Brown University]

Results

{| border="1" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; font-size: 95%; text-align:right;"
-bgcolor="#EEEEEE" align="center"! colspan="4" | Rhode Island Democratic presidential primary, 2008 [cite web |title=2008 Presidential Preference Primary |publisher=Rhode Island Board of Elections |date=2008-03-05 |url=http://www.ri.gov/election/results/2008/presidential_preference_primary/ |accessdate=2008-03-05]
-bgcolor="#EEEEEE" align="center"! style="width: 17em"| Candidate! style="width: 5em"| Votes! style="width: 7em"| Percentage! style="width: 5em"| Delegates [cite web |last=Berg-Andersson |first=Richard |title=Rhode Island Democrat Presidential Nominating Process |publisher=The Green Papers |date=2008-03-04 |url=http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P08/RI-D.phtml |accessdate=2008-03-05]
-
align="left"| Hillary Clinton
108,949
58.44%
13
-
align="left"| Barack Obama
75,316
40.40%
8
-bgcolor=#FFE8E8
align="left"| "John Edwards"
"1,133"
"0.61%"
"0"
-
align="left"| Uncommitted
1,041
0.56%
0
-
-bgcolor="#EEEEEE" style="margin-right:0.5em"
Totals
186,439
100.00%
21

See also

* Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008
* Rhode Island Republican primary, 2008

References