DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee Meeting Preview

Alicia Kolar Prevost, who writes for the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies blog, notes that 366 Democratic delegates could be at stake tomorrow as the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws Committee (RBC) meets to decide the fate of the Michigan and Florida delegations. That's more delegates than the states of Pennsylvania and Ohio have combined. The RBC will meet at the Wardman Park Marriot Hotel. Here is the agenda for the meeting. This Politico piece describes the background on the controversy, as well as some of the potential solutions.

Prevost, who is also a DNC volunteer, has some good insights into the inner workings of the arcane world of national political committee processes:

The Clinton-Obama breakdown on the 30-member committee is 13 Clinton, 8 Obama, and 9 uncommitted. There is also one committee member from Michigan (Mark Brewer, the State Party Chair, uncommitted) and one from Florida (Alan Katz, Obama supporter), who may not be able to vote on the fate of their own state delegations, but even they could vote we should expect they will support fully restoring the delegates (consistent with the Clinton position, even though Katz publicly supports Obama). So the number in favor of the Clinton position could be as high as 15 votes, and Obama's support as low as 7.

But even though Clinton has an advantage, I wouldn't expect to see members' votes guided only by their candidate preference. In addition to their publicly-expressed candidate loyalties, these committee members--many of whom helped write the delegate selection rules and are guided by decades of experience in presidential nominations--will be guided by their commitment to the party's chances of winning in November, and also with an eye towards the 2012 nomination process.

She also links to this timely analysis at Democratic Convention Watch that discusses several outcomes and how they will impact the pledged delegate count. And for those of you looking for a good excuse not to mow the lawn on Saturday, Prevost notes that the proceeding will be covered by C-SPAN and maybe CNN or MSNBC. Can't wait!