Some folks with eagle eyes have noticed that the AP put out a story stating that the final pledged delegate count in California stands at 204 for Clinton and 166 for Obama.
Also Saturday, California’s Democratic Party finalized the delegate counts from its Feb. 5 primary. Clinton picked up two more pledged delegates, raising her state total to 204; Obama gained five, raising his figure to 166.
Well, the AP made a mistake — but it’s not in the numbers. The California Democratic Party did not finalize the delegate counts. The California Secretary of State finalized the election results. Maybe it’s semantics, but I think it’s an important notation to make.
However, that number is correct.
Last week, David made his calculations and wrote about them based on the March 4 accounting published by the Secretary of State’s office. Final certification, however, did not take place until March 8, and the final results are scheduled to be announced on Monday, March 17. But the official Statement of Vote has been posted on the Secretary of State’s website, and the numbers have changed since the March 4 report. Every other district’s delegate count will remain the same as that calculated by David, but in CA-51 (Bob Filner’s district) the change in the final numbers was enough to prompt a delegate shift.
The March 4 numbers showed Clinton with 40,372 votes (59.2%) and Obama with 24,867 votes (36.5%) in CA-51.
But after March 4, even more votes were counted. The final Statement of Vote published by the SoS shows Clinton with 45,598 (60.2%) and Obama with 26,912 (35.6%). That change was enough to take the district from a 2-2 split to a 3-1 split.
And that took the total number of pledged delegates from David’s calculation of 203-167 to the 204-166 reported by the AP.
On a completely different topic…
While we’re discussing delegates, there’s another issue that needs to be addressed. Before the primary election even occurred, the CDP devised a District Delegate allocation plan to ensure that there was gender balance between the District Delegates who will attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.
The method the CDP used was simple. They put the District Delegate slots onto a spreadsheet, Numbers 1 through 241, and assigned the gender on an even-odd basis, e.g., male, female, male, female, etc., all the way from 1 to 241. Then they started at the top of the spreadsheet and entered the delegates for the Congressional Districts in numerical order, CD-01 through CD-53.
So now (and remember, this is pre-February 5) the spreadsheet looked like this:
| Delegate 1 |
Female |
CD-01 |
| Delegate 2 |
Male |
CD-01 |
| Delegate 3 |
Female |
CD-01 |
| Delegate 4 |
Male |
CD-01 |
| Delegate 5 |
Female |
CD-01 |
| Delegate 6 |
Male |
CD-02 |
| Delegate 7 |
Female |
CD-02 |
| Delegate 8 |
Male |
CD-02 |
| Delegate 9 |
Female |
CD-02 |
… all the way on through Delegate 241, Female, CD-53.
So now that the election is over and the results have been certified, the District Delegates assigned to Clinton and Obama will be dropped into the slots in their Congressional Districts. The winning candidate in each CD is entered first.
So, for instance, in CD-01, Obama received 47.2% of the vote to Clinton’s 44.9% — he will receive three delegates to her two. So Delegates 1-3 are assigned to Obama; Delegates 4 and 5 are assigned to Clinton. That means that in CD-01’s April 13 delegate caucus, Obama supporters will vote for Delegates 1, 2 and 3, two females and one male; Clinton supporters will choose Delegates 4 and 5, one male and one female.
In CD-02, where Clinton received 46.5% of the vote and Obama received 41.9%, each will receive two delegates. Clinton’s supporters will choose Delegates 6 and 7, one male and one female, and Obama’s supporters will select Delegates 8 and 9, also one male and one female. I think you probably catch the drift.
However, there’s a rub. There’s always a rub.
Now that the vote has taken place and the District Delegates have been apportioned, it turns out that there are 13 Congressional Districts where a candidate only received one delegate. And in all 13 of those Congressional Districts, the candidate with just one delegate is Obama. What that means is that the District Delegates elected by the Obama caucuses in these 13 Congressional Districts are going to be restricted on the basis of gender.
Here’s how it will break down:
| CD-18 |
Cardoza |
Male |
| CD-20 |
Costa |
Female |
| CD-21 |
Nunes |
Female |
| CD-31 |
Becerra |
Male |
| CD-32 |
Solis |
Male |
| CD-34 |
Roybal-Allard |
Female |
| CD-38 |
Napolitano |
Male |
| CD-39 |
Sanchez, Linda |
Male |
| CD-41 |
Lewis |
Male |
| CD-43 |
Baca |
Male |
| CD-45 |
Bono |
Male |
| CD-47 |
Sanchez, Loretta |
Female |
| CD-51 |
Filner |
Male |
Only one person of the gender listed above will be elected at those April 13 District Delegate caucus. So, for instance, a woman cannot be elected as a District Delegate in CD-18; a man cannot be elected in CD-47.
And here’s the deal. We know that there are people who really worked their hearts out for Obama and that some people will feel disenfranchised by the system that’s been put into place. That’s why we wanted to explain this early and as fully as possible. Trust me, we feel their pain. And we sincerely hope that once folks have gotten over their initial disappointment, they don’t let this deter them from jumping in and working hard in future Democratic campaigns.
In the meantime, people can always apply to be At-Large Delegates using the Form B application. The deadline to apply to be an At-Large Delegate is April 23, at 5:00 p.m.
Penny
Online Organizing Director
California Democratic Party
