2020 Democratic Delegate Allocation: NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

Election type: territorial caucuses
Date: March 14
Number of delegates: 11 [6 at-large delegates, 5 automatic/superdelegates]
Allocation method: proportional territory-wide
Threshold to qualify for delegates: 15%
2016: territorial caucuses
Delegate selection plan


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Changes since 2016
If one followed the 2016 series on the Republican process here at FHQ, then you may end up somewhat disappointed. The two national parties manage the presidential nomination process differently. The Republican National Committee is much less hands-on in regulating state and state party activity in the delegate selection process than the Democratic National Committee is. That leads to a lot of variation from state to state and from cycle to cycle on the Republican side. Meanwhile, the DNC is much more top down in its approach. Thresholds stay the same. It is a 15 percent barrier that candidates must cross in order to qualify for delegates. That is standard across all states. The allocation of delegates is roughly proportional. Again, that is applied to every state.

That does not mean there are no changes. The calendar has changed as have other facets of the process such as whether a state has a primary or a caucus.

Democrats in the Northern Mariana Islands kept their second Saturday in March position on the 2020 primary calendar, keeping the territory there on the calendar for the second consecutive cycle. The delegation also remained the same size as it was in 2016.


Thresholds
The standard 15 percent qualifying threshold applies territory-wide for the allocation of the six at-large delegates.


Delegate allocation (at-large)
To win any at-large delegates a candidate must win 15 percent of the territory-wide vote in the caucuses. Only the votes of those candidates above the threshold will count for the purposes of the allocation of those delegates.

See New Hampshire synopsis for an example of how the delegate allocation math works for all categories of delegates.


Delegate allocation (congressional district delegates)
There are no congressional districts or other subdivisions within the Northern Mariana Islands and as such there are no district delegates to allocate in the March 3 caucuses.


Delegate allocation (automatic delegates/superdelegates)
Superdelegates are free to align with a candidate of their choice at a time of their choosing. While their support may be a signal to voters in their state (if an endorsement is made before voting in that state), superdelegates will only vote on the first ballot at the national convention if half of the total number of delegates -- pledged plus superdelegates -- have been pledged to one candidate. Otherwise, superdelegates are locked out of the voting unless 1) the convention adopts rules that allow them to vote or 2) the voting process extends to a second ballot. But then all delegates, not just superdelegates will be free to vote for any candidate.

[NOTE: All Democratic delegates are pledged and not bound to their candidates. They are to vote in good conscience for the candidate to whom they have been pledged, but technically do not have to. But they tend to because the candidates and their campaigns are involved in vetting and selecting their delegates through the various selection processes on the state level. Well, the good campaigns are anyway.]


Selection
The six at-large delegates to the national convention from Northern Mariana Islands will be selected at the March 14 territory-wide caucuses. Delegate candidates were to have filed by March 5 and will be selected in proportion to the vote of qualifying candidates in the caucuses.

Northern Mariana Island Democrats Will Caucus on March 14

While it has seemingly had no public comment period online -- at least one that FHQ has been able to track down -- the delegate selection plan for the Democratic Party in the Northern Mariana Islands has made its way to the Democratic National Committee. This is something that has changed in the last two weeks because when FHQ spoke with folks  on staff with the Rules and Bylaws Committee then, the national party had yet to receive a submission.

In any event, the plan is in, was reviewed and approved by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee on July 30, and calls for a March 14 caucus. That will be the Saturday following contests in Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington. That second Saturday in March date was the same one the territorial party used in 2016. Although the news of the caucus is new, the date is not. This is only confirmation of that maintenance of the status quo on the calendar.

This leaves only Guam as the remaining Democratic contest with no confirmed date for the 2020 cycle. New York, Puerto Rico and Washington, DC all are in the midst of potential date changes but have preexisting times for their primaries on the books.


The Northern Mariana Island Democratic Party caucuses have been added to the 2020 FHQ presidential primary calendar.


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2016 Republican Delegate Allocation: NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

This is part thirty-two of a series of posts that will examine the Republican delegate allocation rules by state. The main goal of this exercise is to assess the rules for 2016 -- especially relative to 2012 -- in order to gauge the potential impact the changes to the rules along the winner-take-all/proportionality spectrum may have on the race for the Republican nomination. For this cycle the RNC recalibrated its rules, cutting the proportionality window in half (March 1-14), but tightening its definition of proportionality as well. While those alterations will trigger subtle changes in reaction at the state level, other rules changes -- particularly the new binding requirement placed on state parties -- will be more noticeable. 

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS

Election type: caucus
Date: March 15 
Number of delegates: 9 [6 at-large, 3 automatic]
Allocation method: winner-take-all
Threshold to qualify for delegates: n/a
2012: non-binding caucus

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Changes since 2012
Unlike in the other nine delegate territories, the Republican Party in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands has more clearly defined rules on the allocation and particularly the binding of its delegates to the Republican National Convention. Whereas the delegates in the American Samoa, Guam and the Virgin Islands have unbound delegations, the Republicans in the Northern Marianas will allocate their nine delegates to the winner of the territorial caucuses on March 15.¹

That is not only a departure from the other territories but from how the process operated in 2012 in CNMI when the delegation headed to Tampa unbound.


Delegate allocation (at-large and automatic delegates)
There will be two votes that participants in the caucuses in the Northern Marianas will cast. The first is for presidential preference and the second to elect the six at-large delegates from the islands. That first vote binds the delegates chosen in the second vote to the winner of the caucuses.


Binding
Delegates will be bound to the winner of the Northern Marianas caucuses through the first ballot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. After that, the delegates are released. If the winner of the caucuses withdraws before the convention, then the delegates vote as a group on who to support as a nine member group on the first ballot. Should the first ballot be inconclusive, then the delegates are freed of their bond to the original winner or the replacement choice of the delegation and can support any candidate they prefer (as individuals).


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State allocation rules are archived here.


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¹ Yes, the Virgin Islands would have had bound delegates had any delegates committed to candidate been elected. The rules there -- carried over from 2012 -- did not necessarily call for the binding of delegates. That is a function of an interpretation of the Virgin Islands rules by the RNC given the new rules on binding for 2016.


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Recent Posts:
2016 Republican Delegate Allocation: MISSOURI

2016 Republican Delegate Allocation: ILLINOIS

2016 Republican Delegate Allocation: FLORIDA

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Romney Sweeps Northern Mariana Islands 9 Delegates

FHQ will not belabor the point here. After all, the story is much the same as the one out of Guam in the early hours of Saturday morning. But Mitt Romney won the caucuses/convention in the Northern Mariana Islands today and with it the nine delegates apportioned it by the Republican National Committee.

One thing that should be noted in all of this -- before the inevitable uproar over why these places have delegates -- is that neither Guam nor the Northern Mariana Islands are winner-take-all contests. It just looks that way now that Romney has claimed the entire 18 delegate cache from both. No, as FHQ mention earlier in the Guam post, the RNC considers these unbound delegates and will likely continue to do so in its delegate count. However, in both cases the newly chosen delegations have opted to endorse the former Massachusetts governor.

I know, I know. But Romney won all of the delegates; that's winner-take-all. He did and it is, but according to the rules these contests (and the caucuses in the Virgin Islands later today and in American Samoa on Tuesday) are producing unbound delegates. From the perspective of the rules, then, these contests are not winner-take-all, but procedurally they have been.

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The delegation in the Northern Marianas breaks down in a similar fashion to Guam. There are three automatic delegates (party chair, national committeeman and national committeewoman) and six additional delegates. The automatic delegates were already in place, but the the caucuses in Saipan on Saturday selected the remaining six delegates in the delegation from a pool of 16 candidates.


Recent Posts:
Guam Goes for Romney

The Revenge of Santorum Can't Get to 1144

2012 Republican Delegate Allocation: North Dakota

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Northern Marianas Republicans Set for March 10 Convention

Republicans in the Northern Marianas have settled on a date for their delegate selection. The territory's Republicans will hold a convention on Saturday, March 10 for the purposes of allocating delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Of the nine delegates at stake, six will be selected at the convention. The remaining three delegates are the territory's automatic delegates.

Guam now is the only state or territory without a date on the presidential primary calendar (...that is not also mired in a dispute over congressional district boundaries affecting a presidential primary date).

Thanks to Tony Roza at The Green Papers for sharing the news.

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2012 Republican Delegate Allocation: Missouri

2012 Republican Delegate Allocation: Minnesota

2012 Republican Delegate Allocation: Colorado

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