Kaine sides with Sanders, calls for eliminating superdelegates

11/15/17 06:15 PM EST

Excerpts:
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee, is siding with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in advocating for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to end the use of superdelegates, saying that they have "undue influence" over the primary process.

"I have long believed there should be no superdelegates. These positions are given undue influence in the popular nominating contest and make the process less democratic,” Kaine wrote in the letter, obtained first by Politico.

Superdelegates consist of powerful Democratic operatives and elected officials whose votes carry more weight than regularly elected delegates, sometimes trumping the winner of state primary votes.

Kaine, a former DNC chairman and superdelegate himself, urged the Unity Reform Commission, a group reviewing and recommending changes to the system, to do away with superdelegates altogether and said he would protest the rule by voting strictly in accordance with his home district in the future.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/360587-tim-kaine-sides-with-sanders-calls-for-eliminating-superdelegates