SD Democrats to select national convention delegates

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PIERRE — The South Dakota Democratic Party will conduct delegate selection caucuses in each of the state’s 35 legislative districts to start the process of electing delegates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention this summer in Charlotte, N.C.

“The process is actually pretty simple and easy to access,” said Ben Nesselhuf, chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. “The first 11 delegates will be the names that appear in the June primary under President Barack Obama, who is the only Democrat seeking the national party’s nomination.

“Registered Democrats who want to be one of those 11 delegates or two alternates need to get elected through two caucus meetings during March.”

The caucus meetings will be held:

* Saturday, March 10, at 10 a.m. for each legislative district. (See www.sddp.org for each district’s meeting location.)

Participants must complete a Delegate Declaration Form, which must be received at the SDDP office in Sioux Falls no later than 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 7. These forms are available on the SDDP website, www.sddp.org, by e-mailing the SDDP office at info@sddp.org, by writing the office at P.O. Box 1485, Sioux Falls, SD 57101, or by calling 605-271-5405.

* Saturday, March 24, at 10 a.m. for the statewide Congressional District Caucus. Nobody can participate in or be nominated by the statewide caucus unless they are elected in the legislative district meetings to be a delegate in the statewide caucus.

Because only Obama will qualify to appear on South Dakota’s state primary ballot, the 11 delegates and two alternates elected March 24 will go to the national convention during the week of Sept. 3, Nesselhuf said.

The national party rules automatically make seven South Dakotans, who are elected leaders and state party leaders, national convention delegates.

The remaining six delegate positions will be decided by the SDDP State Central Committee at its state convention June 16.

Nesselhuf said the national party rules call for South Dakota’s delegation to be balanced between genders and should also reflect the state’s population of minorities.

Tags: election 2012, national convention, news, updates, state, politics, democrats, delegates