Monday, April 28, 2008

Guam has 3 superdelegate vacancies

WE'VE MOVED! Democratic Convention Watch is now at http://www.DemocraticConventionWatch.com

The Guam caucuses have already started, and will finish on Saturday. (They voted last weekend on one island, because the island has their village fiesta scheduled for this weekend!) Guam will elect 8 pledged delegates, each with 1/2 a vote, for a total of 4 pledged delegate votes.

Guam also has 5 superdelegates (each with a full vote), and it turns out 3 of the superdelegate positions are vacant:

First, DNC member Robert Underwood has resigned, and it looks like his replacement will support Obama:

Guam Democratic Party Chairman Tony Charfauros yesterday said he is about to appoint either Sen. Benjamin Cruz or attorney Mike Phillips to a vacant superdelegate position -- the party's "committee man" position. Cruz and Philips are both Obama supporters.

Charfauros said his appointment of Cruz or Philips -- which must happen "soon" -- would also have to be approved by Guam's central executive committee and then by the Democratic National Committee.

Although Sen. David Shimizu -- a Clinton supporter -- is running unopposed for the Guam committee man position during the party's ongoing village elections, Charfauros said Shimizu's term as committee man would not begin until after the national convention. Former Guam Del. Robert Underwood, who now is University of Guam president, resigned the committee man position, creating the vacancy.

That's one vacancy. But the Chair and Vice-chair positions are also about to go vacant. For both positions:
Three candidates are running for this position in Saturday's party elections. The winner will assume office and attend the national convention as a superdelegate.
We can't find a web site for the Guam Democratic Party, so there are questions: When do the terms of the Chair and Vice-Chair start? If they start right after the election, doesn't the appointment of the DNC member by current chair Tony Charfauros have to occur before his term is up?

We'll try to find out more. (h/t to Andrew in the comments for the link)

3 comments:

RG said...

Here's some more detailed info on what's going on in Guam:

http://www.mvariety.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=10549&format=html

Matt said...

Russell - thanks. Just put up a new post with more information.

Unknown said...

Here is information and linkage back to the results and the endorsements that came with them (Vice Chair for Obama).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5801993&mesg_id=5801993