A Doomsday Scenario in Puerto Rico

Pledged delegates for the democratic primary are allocated based on population, and several U.S. territories, like American Samoa, Guam, and Puerto Rico participate in the nomination process. This is a nominal way for the citizens of these places to participate in the selection process of the government that is intricately involved in their lives. The population allocation math used grants Puerto Rico 55 pledged delegates, which is more than states like Oregon and Oklahoma (Oregon actually edges out Puerto Rico by two delegates if you include the unpledged superdelegates).

This is of little consequence now, but imagine what would happen if the race were tighter. Puerto Rico, with its 55 pledged delegates, could have been the deciding factor as the last big delegate cache (the Puerto Rico primary is just days before Montana and South Dakota, which combined, only have 31 delegates). Can you imagine the uproar if Clinton (who, according to the only recent poll in Puerto Rico, leads Obama by a wide margin) were closer in the overall delegate count and then pulled the 15% victory in the territory, edging out Obama for the nomination at the last minute? Superdelegates would certainly have a case to support Obama (arguing that the superdelegate votes would ensure that the votes of full U.S. citizens be honored), but the Clinton camp in this case would be furious. This technically could have happened, and it would have been ugly.

I’m not making the argument that U.S. territories should be shut out of the system, but it seems that allocating pledged delegates according to the same metric used for the fifty states is courting disaster. Ideally, the democratic party should revisit this insane nominating process altogether. And by revisit, I mean (to paraphrase Hillary Clinton) obliterate.