From Ricky Liberman’s mail
4. CONVENTION and NOMINATING PRECEDENT: Asked whether there were precedents for putting the name of a losing candidate into nomination at the convention, a friend went back as far as 1980 and reports that the bottom line is, there is considerable precedent for having Hillary’s name put in nomination at the convention.
1980: Jimmy Carter was significantly ahead of Senator Kennedy, but Kennedy’s name was put in nomination:
Carter maintained a substantial lead even after Kennedy swept the last batch of primaries in June. Despite this, Kennedy refused to drop out, and the 1980 Democratic National Convention was one of the nastiest on record. On the penultimate day, Kennedy conceded the nomination and called for a more liberal party platform. (On the platform on the final day, Kennedy for the most part ignored Carter).
The delegate tally at the convention was in part:
Jimmy Carter – 2,129.02
Ted Kennedy – 1,150.48
14 others – 66.5
1984: Even though Walter Mondale was way ahead in the delegate count, both Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson had their names put in nomination.
Walter F. Mondale – 2191
Gary W. Hart – 1200
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson – 485
Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri – 18
George S. McGovern – 4
John H. Glenn Jr. – 2
Joseph Biden – 1
Lane Kirkland – 1
1988: Dukakis was significantly ahead in delegates, but Jesse Jackson’s name and a few others were put in nomination.
Michael Dukakis 2687
Jesse Jackson 1218
Joseph Biden 2
Richard Gephardt 2
Gary Hart 1
Lloyd Bentsen 1
1992: By the time of the convention, Bill Clinton was the all but presumed nominee. However the names of several others were put in nomination. The following was the nomination tally:
Bill Clinton 3372
Jerry Brown 596
Paul Tsongas 289
Robert P. Casey 10
Pat Schroeder 5
Larry Agran 3
Al Gore 1
1996: As a sitting president, Clinton had no real opponents. No one else was put in nomination.
President Bill Clinton was nominated unanimously for a second term andVice President Al Gore by voice vote.
2000: Only Al Gore, was nominated, Bradley had dropped out very early, had few delegates. On the day before the convention started Bill Bradley “freed” his delegates and asked them to vote for Vice President Gore.
The Vice President was nominated unanimously
2004: John Kerry had sewn up the nomination in March. No other candidate had a significant accumulation of delegates. The days before the convention started, the other candidates withdrew, “freed” their delegates and officially endorsed Kerry. All the delegates voted to ratify this decision and vote for Kerry, except those of Kucinich, who attempted to vote for Kucinich anyway. Many states refused to let them do so, and only permitted them to register abstentions.
5. SPEAKING OF JOHN KERRY – A response from Jan Levy to a DNC solicitation: Dear John: Well – before ws take the fight to the Republicans – I want us to avoid a fight at the coonvention by ensuring that our party makes a commitment to COUNT EVERY VOTE!!!! – maybe if that had been our goal in 2004, you’d be running for reelection?
Here’s the votes from the 2004 convention:
Kerry, John F., 10,045,891
Edwards, John, 3,207,048
Dean, Howard, 937,015*
Kucinich, Dennis J., 643,067
(others), 591,524
Clark, Wesley K., 572,207
Sharpton, Alfred C. “Al”, 383,683
Uncommitted, 155,388
*Always remember how many votes he got when he compares himself to Hillary saying “we are the same”
1 Comment
July 13, 2008 at 6:52 pm
[...] 2004 votes: [...]