Tag Archives: Pete Buttigieg

And the Next Vice-President Is?

Democrats have had to act on a very compressed schedule recently.  This compressed schedule is caused by two things:  1) The sudden withdrawal of Joe Biden from the race on July 21; and 2) Ohio Republicans.

On the second issue, for almost five decades now, the tradition has been that, in almost every election cycle, the party in the White House has held their convention between August 15 and the week after Labor Day.  Despite this tradition, some states (including Ohio) have set a deadline for certifying the presidential and vice-presidential candidates before the end of August.  Despite this nominal deadline, in every cycle, these states (having made whatever point they intended to make) grant a waiver to any party holding their convention after the deadline.  This year, however, Ohio waited to long to enact a statutory waiver which creates an ambiguous situation.  Ohio’s new law will push the deadline to after the Democratic convention, but that new law does not take effect until September 1.   The current law, however, has a deadline of August 7.  So, if the Democrats wait until after the convention, their certification will be untimely under current law and then, maybe, become timely under the new law.  But that would require hoping for courts to do the right thing in interpreting the law, and, despite the guarantees to the contrary by Republican officials in Ohio, it is as certain as the sun rising in the morning that some Republican would challenge any “late certification.”

As a result, the Democrats have been acting as if August 7 is still the deadline in Ohio.  Thus, the virtual roll call for President will be concluded by 6 p.m. on August 6.  And Vice-President Harris has until just before the close of business on August 7 to name her vice-presidential nominee.  While  normally, we would expect to see this pick made on the eve of the convention (in other words around August 14-16), the pick has to be made within the next seventy-two hours. Continue Reading...

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Winnowing Out???

Historically, the main role played by the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary is to narrow the field.  While, for different reasons, they are not necessarily representative of what it takes to win the nomination or the general election, they are both small enough that even candidates not well-known to the general public have a chance to make their case to the voters.  (Of course, for all of its flaws, the party-sponsored debates are eliminating some of that aspect of Iowa and New Hampshire.)  And candidates who fail to show any signs of life in these two states tend to lose their supporters (both financially and vote-wise) who begin to look for somebody who has a chance at making it to the convention.

This year seems like it might be a bit different than in the past.  In part due to the chaos that was Iowa, nobody dropped out after Iowa.  Last night, when it was clear that the results were not going to be there for them, Senator Michael Bennet and Andrew Yang announced that they had reached the end of the road.  And Governor Deval Patrick is apparently taking time to consider if he still has a path forward.  Bu that seems to be the extent of the winnowing that we will see for now.

With the possible exception of Representative Tulsi Gabbard, the remaining candidates each seem to think that they have a path forward that, at least, justifies staying in the race a little bit longer.  Both Vice-President Joe Biden and Tom Steyer have invested heavily in South Carolina.  Biden still leads the polls in South Carolina and Steyer is either second or third depending upon which poll you credit.  If they can hold onto that support, South Carolina would breathe new life into their campaign.  As the last remaining person of color in the race, Governor Deval Patrick apparently hopes that he can become the second choice of South Carolina voters in Biden’s support collapses. Continue Reading...

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