Why Edwards Should Continue

If you are a reader of this blog, you know that we tend to favor John Edwards as the Democratic nominee. Frankly this is because we are much more economically liberal than socially liberal. We are concerned about issues such as the minimum wage, allowing workers to organize, workplace safety, the influence of corporations on the political process, the availability of higher education for working class familiies, and the growing income inequality in America. We believe that John Edwards is the best candidate to both win the nomination and advance action on those issues. Having said that, however, we could easily support either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee. We also believe that any of the three leading Democratic candidates is better than any of the Republicans candidates on those issues.

Which brings us to the point of this blog entry. (We know that you have been patiently waiting for us to get to the point, but felt we had to make the above disclosure.) According to CNN's Election Central, there have only been elected delegates awarded for Iowa and New Hampshire since the DNC stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates. Of those elected delegates, John Edwards has obtained 26.8% of those delegates elected. This is because there are no winner take all Democratic primaries or caucuses. As long as a candidate gets 15% of the vote, he or she gets delegates.

There are 4050 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Approximately 790 of them are not elected, but the rest seem to be elected delegates. This means that there are approximately 3250 elected delegates. Fifteen percent of that number is 488, and 25% of that number would be 813. (In both calculations we have rounded off to the next higher number.) Clearly such a number would be significant block of votes and would allow Edwards to have an impact on both the nominee and the party platform.

Of course, given the propensity of the media to cover the horse race aspect of the nomination struggle, it will be hard for Edwards to get coverage for his campaign as the number of primaries increase, and he may effectively run out of money. If, however, he can continue, then a vote for Edwards in the Ohio March primary may not be a wasted vote if you care about his issues.