The focus of the presidential primary campaign has suddenly shifted. With weeks left, candidates sadly seem to be arguing less over the issues than the intricacies of each state’s nomination process.

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump and his supporters are upset that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is wooing delegates while he woos voters; a top Trump aide accused Cruz of “gestapo tactics” in corralling delegates in Colorado. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her supporters are upset that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is questioning whether she’s “qualified” to be president so late in the campaign with the big haul of New York’s delegates up next, potentially weakening her for a runoff against the GOP. Meanwhile, Sanders and his supporters are upset that Clinton is relying on superdelegates — unelected delegates whose votes are essentially subject to persuasion — to land the nomination.

The gall. They’re all actually trying to become the party nominee — by actually playing party politics. It’s a messy, arcane and even absurd process, but it is what it is. People who want to change it, starting with the candidates themselves, need to realize the system is the system.

That matters more than ever this year because California is not only in play but potentially decisive in both campaigns, and voters need to understand a nuanced process.


Let us explain.

Each state sets up the way in which it awards delegates in presidential politics. We won’t try to explain Colorado’s complex approach, but we will explain how California doles out its delegates.

On the Republican side, 172 delegates are awarded, more than any other state and about 14 percent of what’s needed to secure the nomination, three each to the winner in each of California’s 53 congressional districts and another 13 to whoever wins the state. That puts a premium on strategy and means heavily Democratic districts might actually be most important to candidates because fewer Republican residents means fewer votes are needed to secure a victory. Strategically, it incentivizes a ground game in a state made less for retail politicking than statewide television and radio campaigns.

On the Democratic side, the delegate math is less straightforward though the haul is similarly huge: The state awards 546 delegates to Democrats, the largest of any state and nearly a quarter of what’s needed to win the nomination. Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton this week called the Democrats’ delegate distribution “the politically smart thing” because “they reward party loyalty” by basing each district’s delegate number on “its past support of Democratic presidential candidates.”


Per Skelton, this means that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s district hands out nine delegates based on each candidate’s vote totals while House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy — the state’s top Republican — hands out only five. Further complicating the math, delegates are awarded like so: 317 by district, 105 at-large statewide, 53 to party leaders and 71 as unpledged superdelegates.

There’s plenty of time to learn more about the system and the candidates before California votes on June 7 — whether they criticize it or each other.

Just wait until everyone shifts focus to the November election and scratches their heads over the Electoral College before another four-year reprieve.

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