DNC showdown set Saturday

Chief pushes plan to limit influence of superdelegates

CHICAGO — Democrats are bullish about their prospects in the November midterms and are peeking around the corner at a 2020 rematch with President Donald Trump. But first, they’re confronting the lingering frustration from 2016.

That bitter nominating fight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is front and center in Chicago this week as members of the Democratic National Committee gather for their summer meeting. They will decide the fate of superdelegates: DNC members, elected officials and other party dignitaries.

Two years after such delegates overwhelmingly backed Clinton, Sanders supporters argue that this group is the epitome of establishment favoritism.

As he seeks to build a unified front among Democrats heading into the next presidential primary, DNC Chairman Tom Perez is pushing a proposal to limit the influence of superdelegates at the 2020 convention. The primary could feature as many as two dozen Democrats vying to take on Trump.

“These moves are about rebuilding trust,” Perez told reporters recently, defending a plan that would strip party insiders of their votes on the first ballot of a contested nominating convention, leaving the outcome to pledged delegates whose votes are dictated by the results of state primaries and caucuses.

Perez predicted he will secure the DNC majority required to change party rules when the full committee considers the matter Saturday.

Yet in trying to mollify Sanders’ supporters and grass-roots activists, Perez has inflamed tensions among the DNC membership and on Capitol Hill, where rank-and-file party leaders and Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond have blasted the proposal.

Don Fowler, who served as DNC chairman during President Bill Clinton’s administration, said the party is punishing loyal party leaders “on some vague presumption that it will be fairer.” He promised an organized opposition at Saturday’s meeting.