In his letter and in a Thursday interview with POLITICO, Barney Frank also said he'd like the national party to push states away from holding caucuses and toward primaries. | AP Photo Barney Frank: Scrap superdelegates, end caucuses The DNC rules committee co-chair outlined his set of preferred changes to the Democratic nominating process.

Count former Rep. Barney Frank among the prominent Democrats who would like to see their party ditch superdelegates and back off from caucuses.

Frank, who now serves as co-chairman of the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee, says that in his current role, it’s his job to foster a fair debate as the party rethinks its process for picking presidential candidates, but he also admits that he has his own set of preferences for which way the party should go. Specifically, he opposes the prominent role “ex-officio delegates” (commonly known as “superdelegates”) have in the Democratic nominating process.


“I said repeatedly this spring that I believed it would be unacceptable for the votes of ex-officio delegates to overrule the outcome of the primaries and caucuses. While this will not happen this year, and has in fact never come even close to happening since the change was instituted, I support doing away with even the possibility of this before our next nomination contest,” Frank wrote in a letter to Maine state Rep. Diane Russell, who submitted an amendment to Frank and Leticia Van De Putte — Frank’s co-chair on the rules panel — that would eliminate superdelegates.

In his letter and in a Thursday interview with POLITICO, Frank also said he’d like the national party to push states away from holding caucuses and toward primaries.

“I believe very strongly that we should do what we can to get rid of caucuses. They really are so undemocratic compared to primaries. We can’t do that directly because that's up to states. But I would favor weighting the votes so that states that had primaries got many more votes than states that had caucuses, reflecting the fact that there would be greater participation,” Frank said in an interview with POLITICO Thursday.

“Personally, I have long felt that we should make our nomination process more democratic, both by doing away with votes cast by ex-officio delegates and by doing what we can to replace caucuses with primaries, which are much more voter friendly,” Frank wrote in his letter.

Frank’s comments come as various Democratic factions increasingly voice their views on the need to change the superdelegate system or expand the number of caucuses or primaries. Sen. Bernie Sanders — whose superdelegate support was dwarfed by that of Hillary Clinton — has strongly criticized the role of superdelegates and argued at the very least they should have to align their support in proportion to the outcome of caucuses and primaries in their states. Frank cast that reform as a pipe dream.

“That's unworkable. How do you do that? Who decides which one does what? I don’t understand how that works? What are they, some superpowers?” Frank said. “Literally how does that work? I don’t think people have thought that through.”

Last weekend, the Congressional Black Caucus began sending letters to top Democratic party leaders strongly objecting to Sanders’ proposals to overhaul the party’s superdelegate system. The CBC’s chairman, Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina, argued in those letters that getting rid of superdelegates would unfairly affect the African-American community. Frank acknowledged the CBC’s argument, but still said there should be some kind of superdelegate reform.

“I understand their position. My own view would be that the people who qualify as ex-officio delegates should be allowed to attend the convention but not vote,” Frank said.