by Curtis Waktins

With all the hoopla surrounding Charlotte being the host city for the 2012 Democratic National Convention, it is easy to get lost in all the parties, protests, celebrities, and other extracurricular activities that will take place here next September. We hear about the projected economic impact, we hear about the venues, and we hear about the worldwide spotlight to be placed on our great city. What we often don’t hear about though are the actual politics beneath it all. After all, you didn’t think this was just one giant party without any political background, did you?

First things first, a little bit of history: while political conventions were originally established for party members to come together to nominate their candidate to run for president, that is not exactly how it works today. Think about it – how many debates have you either watched or heard of these past few months alone in states like Florida or New Hampshire or South Carolina? This is because the individual state primaries has replaced the convention as the presidential nomination process in modern politics. Throughout primary season candidates go from state to state in an attempt to win the popular vote & delegates of that state. Essentially, win the majority of the key primaries and the candidate wins the nomination! Now you might ask yourself, that’s great, so then what’s the deal with these delegates and what is their role in all of this if the voters have already picked their nominee?

The short answer is that delegates go to the convention to represent the people of their state. In other words, win the presidential primary in a state to earn delegate representation at the convention in favor of your candidacy. How many delegates, however, and how they represent the candidate gets a little tricky by each party. Democrats and Republicans set their own rules (of course). For the Democrats, delegates are proportionate to the number of votes in the primary. (That is, of course, if there was a primary. We already know President Obama will be the nominee, but delegates will still come to Charlotte all representing President Obama). Republicans simply use a winner takes all approach – win the primary in the state and win the delegates. And how many delegates would that be? Well, here again it depends on the party and where the convention is being held, but it essentially becomes a combination of the size of the state, how they have supported the party in the past, and a few other criteria.

Whew! And just when you thought we’d covered it all, one more factor to consider: a few states that still use the caucus system, such as Iowa. Here again this gets tricky by each party on how the process works, and it would take far too long to delve into the details. Suffice it to say, because of the complexity of this process most states have moved to the primary process described above though there are still some very notable exceptions such as the Iowa caucus.

So if the question of the party nominee has been settled through the primary or caucus process, you might wonder what is the point of the convention. As noted above, it certainly has local impacts on the host city. But what does it mean politically? The truth is not much. While the delegates do attend to represent their states and voters, there is no real decision to be made on the nominee. No major debates or anything of that nature takes place. If nothing else, it serves as a platform to show unity behind the nominee and party strength as well as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the nominee.

Just don’t expect any earth shattering political developments to come out of Charlotte this September!