Delegates In California: A Caution

If, in many congressional districts in California, a Democrat does not receive more than 62% of the vote, he or she will receive the same number of delegates from that CD as the he or she who finishes second. (Only Clinton and Obama will earn viability -- above 15% in those CDs.)

Hence Hillary Clinton could win California by, say, 20 points... and take a sliver of a delegate advantage there.

This is intelligent design at work. The creators of the modern primary rules for the Democrats wanted to make sure that a diverse array of interests had their say. Well, now there are two candidates who are viable, who have lots of money, who have a diverse base of support... and the primary rules will be manifestly unfair to the supporters of one of them. (This is why I've been skeptical of the Obama campaign spin... yes, they'll likely lose a number of states, but the delegate differences will be minuscule.)

Bob Mullholland, a very smart Democratic Party adviser in California, has calculated the exact percentages needed for one candidate to take an extra delegate from an even delegate congressional district.

"In the 26 congressional districts that are allocated four delegates, one candidate would have to get more than 62.500% of the vote, otherwise, both candidates will get two delegates each. In the six congressional districts that are allocated six delegates, one candidate would have to get more than 58.330% of the vote to get four delegates, otherwise each gets three delegates."