BELCHERTOWN – Michael Seward got angry when he looked at the Massachusetts results on Super Tuesday and then at the list of the state’s superdelegates and whom they support.
While candidate Bernie Sanders received overwhelming support in his home district, Massachusetts-2, Jim McGovern, who represents the district, is supporting Hillary Clinton, along with the majority of the state’s superdelegates.
“It just seemed like a rigged game and seemed like something that should be exposed and exposed loudly and clearly,” he said.
Seward, who lives on the Belchertown/Palmer town line and works in Amherst, is calling for McGovern and several other Massachusetts representatives to change their superdelegate votes.
Of the 4,763 delegates that will make up the Democratic Convention in July, 712 are superdelegates, party leaders who may vote for whichever candidate they choose. Clinton has achieved near-unanimous support among superdelegates who have announced their preferences.
The 4,051 ordinary delegates will divide their votes according to the results of popular voting. Just over 50 percent of Massachusetts’ pledged delegates will go to Clinton and the rest to Sanders.
Superdelegates include Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and Seward said that those votes should be linked to how a candidate does in those representatives’ districts.
“If you’re a rep of your district, you should cast a vote in line with that district,” he said.
While Clinton edged Sanders in statewide voting Super Tuesday, the senator from Vermont dominated in the Pioneer Valley. Sanders received 73,639 votes among the 63 cities and towns that make up Massachusetts District 2 while Clinton received 53,215, a difference of more than 20,000 votes, according to data obtained through the New York Times.
McGovern did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story.
Rep. Richard Neal, whose district includes Berkshire and Hampden counties along with portions of Franklin, Hampshire and Worcester counties, also supports Clinton. His district was closer, but still went for Sanders, with the Vermont senator taking 56,338 votes to Clinton’s 51,645.
A Neal spokesperson said he was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Thomas Lesser, a Northampton lawyer and a Clinton supporter, said the system should not be changed in the middle of an election cycle. He said that if he were to change the system moving forward, he would be in favor of fewer superdelegates, which now make up 15 percent of the total number of delegates.
He said he doubted that superdelegates would select a candidate other than the one the majority of voters support.
“I was a huge Obama supporter in 2007 and 2008, and we had a superdelegate issue, but all the superdelegates came around to how the country as a whole voted,” he said. “Once the result was clear that Barack Obama had more elected delegates, the superdelegates came around also.”
As for McGovern, Lesser said he was sure that the congressman would pay close attention to how the race continues to unfold.
Mary Olberding of Belchertown, Hampshire County Register of Deeds and a Clinton supporter, said she is in favor of the superdelegates being a part of the nominating process, and she does not think McGovern or any superdelegate should be constrained in their vote.
She said she is glad that McGovern made his choice known early so she could know where he stands.
“I put my faith in him as my congressman that he understands the dynamics and the job,” she said. “He just has a better understanding than the average person on the street.”
She also said that keeping the voting process complex by including superdelegates has advantages and noted that she believes supporters of Republican candidate Donald Trump are ill-informed voters.
“He’s bringing all these people into the process and I’m not sure I want them in the process,” she said.
Olberding said she respects Sanders and has been pleased that the candidate has brought issues such as income inequality to the forefront of the debate.
“I hope he stays until the convention,” she said.
Patty Healey, a member of the National Nurses United union that supports Sanders, said she is hopeful many superdelegates, including McGovern, change their minds and their votes when the convention comes about.
Healey said the Democratic party made it difficult for Sanders to run as an alternative to Clinton by limiting the number of debates and by many superdelegates coming out in support of Clinton before any voting took place.
“The party leaders have really been exposed as self identifying themselves as leaders without really paying attention to what the electorate thinks,” she said.
She said she does not support having superdelegates, but in the meantime she plans to speak to superdelegates, including McGovern, to urge them to change their votes.
“I have the opportunity to do that. On the pipeline or any climate change issues or anything he (McGovern) might take a position I don’t agree with and my job is to talk to him about that and tell my opinion,” she said. “That is what I can do as an American. I’ll go and do that and he’ll listen to me. I have great respect for him. He may still vote for Hillary and he has the right to do that and I recognize that, but I will talk to him about it and talk to the other superdelegates in my state.”
Leo Maley of Amherst, a Sanders supporter and member of the Progressive Democrats of America, said he agreed that superdelegates should reflect the will of the voters in their districts.
At the same time, Maley said he has respect for McGovern.
“Would I like for Jim McGovern to cast his vote for Bernie Sanders given the kind of showing Bernie Sanders had in his district? Yes,” Maley said. “On the other hand, if he doesn’t, life goes on. Jim is still, either way, a good progressive who represents this district incredibly well.”
Maley is pragmatic in his view of superdelegates, saying he would not include them if he were to build a nomination system from scratch, but he can respect their existence in the system as it exists.
One thing he said he could not abide is if the superdelegates cast the deciding vote in a close election.
“Let’s imagine it’s extremely close and somehow Bernie Sanders is ahead by a dozen delegates,” he said. “If the superdelegates then made the decision that he would not be the nominee, that would be a very bad thing because it would be overturning the will of the elected delegates.”
Dave Eisenstadter can be reached at deisen@gazettenet.com.