National Democratic Party/Convention Delegate Selection Reforms
Year Commission Name Popular Name Chair
Presidential Nomination
1968 Special Equal Rights Committee Hughes Committee Richard Hughes (NJ)
Commission on the Democratic
Selection of Presidential Nominees Hughes Commission Harold Hughes (IA)
1972 Commission on Party Structure McGovern-Fraser U.S. Sen. George McGovern (SD)
and Delegate Selection Commission & U.S. Rep. Donald Fraser (MN)
1976 Commission on Delegate
Selection and Party Structure Mikulski Commission U.S. Rep. Barbara Mikulski (MD)
1980 Commission Presidential
Nomination and Party Structure Winograd Commission Morley Winograd (MI)
1984 Commission on Presidential Hunt Commission James Hunt (NC)
Nomination
Commission on Low and
Moderate Income Participation Leland Commission Rep. Mickey Leland (TX)
1988 Commission on Democratic Fairness Commission Don Fowler (SC)
Participation
National Party Process
1972 Charter Commission Sanford Commission Terry Sanford (NC)
Presidential Nomination Process Rules
1972
 Written party rules governing delegate selection
 Direct election of ALL delegates from a state on the same day, at the same time, in places
of easy public access.
•Required election of 75% of delegates from area no larger than a congressional
district;
•Permitted appointment of 10% at the state level;
•Permitted competition for a delegate seat with the payment of a modest fee ($10)
or collection of a modest number of signatures from registered partisans (1%) on
petitions within a specified period of time.
 Affirmative action to represent minorities – blacks, women, and young people (under
age 30) – given their respective numbers in the population.
 Proportional representation floor of 15% for awarding delegates based on primary
election or caucus voting results.
 Delegate selection process half open, permitting the participation of registered Democrats
and independents.
1976
 Required state level of proportional representation for the award of delegates.
 Required closed primary elections and caucuses; only registered Democrats could
participate.
 “Loophole” primary used in many states, a system by which all delegates were elected
from congressional districts on a “winner-take-all” basis (not permitted in 1984, but
brought back later).
1980
 Required 50% of delegates to be women.
 Permitted 10% “add on” of elected officials.
 Established a three month window, 1st Tuesday in March through 1st Tuesday in June,
but Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire allowed to precede the window. (Created a
problem of “front loading” or movement toward the beginning of the window, resulting
in “Super Tuesday” (initially AL, FL and GA) and eventually other mini regional primary
elections.
 Proportional representation floor changed to 15% 1st month, 20% 2nd month, 25% 3rd
month.
1984
 Changed proportional representation floor to 20%.
 Created a “Super Delegate” category as an add-on for elected party/government officials
(14.4% of the national convention total).
 Banned the use of the loophole primary for delegate selection.
1988
 Lowered the proportional representation floor to 15%.
 Expanded the “Super Delegate” category to 16% (bringing in all members of the
Democratic National Committee and larger proportions of Democrats elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives and U.S. Senate (selecting from among themselves).
 Generally relaxed the rules in favor of the states, e.g., bringing back loophole primary
elections.