Though it's not required, you can stick around and listen to the candidates give their in-person statements before deciding how to vote. Don't be surprised if it seems like most people there swoop in, vote for the same fourteen candidates, and leave. That's "machine politics" at work: the power brokers pick their slate and turn their people out. But you can help thwart that, if some of the spots are close enough for a contest... or you can be a part of a good "machine" and join with others to vote for a slate of liberal, reform-minded candidates.

Note that the complete population of delegates includes more than those elected this weekend. To round out the remaining delegate spots, county party committees elect some, and Democratic elected government officeholders and nominees appoint others. As for the California Republican Party (don't laugh... or, rather, go ahead and laugh!), so far as I can tell, all of their delegates are appointed. Guess elections are too democratic for them.

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In our stupid new "top two" "primary" electoral system, the candidate endorsements are actually pretty important. While I'm generally against the party endorsing candidates in its own primaries... in this state, we don't get our own official primary, so having a "party favorite" could be helpful rather than hurtful. For example, in a case of two Republicans running for a particular office along with a bunch of Democrats, if the Dems split the vote too evenly, then it'll just be the two Republicans on the November ballot. This has already happened—in a district that voted solidly for Obama (CA-31, 2012 [PDF]). Talk about a spoiler effect! Then there are the conservatives who slap on a "D" registration to run and block out real Democrats (AD 4, 2014 [PDF]). Hopefully someday we can go back to having closed party primaries, which were actually more honest as well as more accessible to candidates who aren't corporatist centrists.

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For an example of the kind of thing a delegate can do and does, check out a report from our own David Atkins:



Resolution against the tax cut deal for the rich

By thereisnospoon, Dec. 16, 2010

* Districts changed in 2012 according to the 2010 census and the new non-partisan redistricting commission's map. The up-to-date even-numbered state Senate districts finally went into effect with the 2014 election.