If this loss were extrapolated across the rest of the country it could represent maybe a 300 spread between Clinton and Sanders leaning Superdelegates in 2020.
Pledged Delegate Selection
Instead of focussing on these Superdelegates where important gains for reforming the Party could have been made, the Sanders campaign made what appeared to be a poorly conceived and ultimately counterproductive effort to influence the selection of pledged delegates by the sub-caucus of Sanders delegates. This turned out to be the last order of business at the Convention before time ran out.
Since the delegates selected by the Sanders sub-caucus, whoever they may be, were already pledged to vote for Sanders, a time-saving lottery could have been used for this purpose. Selection by lottery would not have made any difference to Sanders' delegate strength. However, at a messy National Convention that Sanders has promised, there may well be important floor fights that will require tight solidarity among Sanders' pledged delegates. It would then be useful to have delegates who are informed and fully prepared to take on those floor fights in accordance with strategies coordinated by the campaign. Certainly the Sanders campaign had the resources for more effective vetting than was possible in the 30 seconds allowed for the presentations by 200 would-be national delegates at the state Convention.
For this reason a slate of pledged delegates competently organized and reliably vetted by the campaign in advance of the Convention could have had some value at the National Convention, depending upon Sanders' intention to engage in a floor fight over Party rules. Had there been some evidence of competent vetting by the campaign for this purpose, according to transparent and convincing criteria, such a slate might well have been accepted by the state convention delegates, even though over a third of the Sanders delegates had hopes of playing the reality-show odds of becoming delegates to the big show in Philadelphia themselves. Advance organizing among these nearly 200 delegates who had formally expressed ambitions to be elected as National Convention delegates during the month prior to the state convention, to sort out the most loyal and effective slate, should not have been a difficult task for an organized campaign.
However a group of candidates for the national delegate positions who did stand as a slate showed no evidence of such vetting by the campaign. They claimed to be supported by Sanders and his campaign manager, Jeff Weaver. But the mailing they had sent out a few days in advance of the Convention gave no evidence of such support. They presented no letter from the campaign. The group claiming this support was neither representative of the state (most coming from Minneapolis), nor did they demonstrate that they were particularly suited to the task of attending the National Convention in order to support Sanders in a floor fight.
Coming as the last order of business, this proffered slate had not evidenced any leadership role in the convention up to that point, though such a leadership role had been noticeably missing from the previous DNC member selection, and from other Convention business. The Sanders campaign had a far more legitimate interest in designating and electing the DNC members than it had with respect to the precise identity of the pledged delegates. Neither the slate, nor the campaign it purported to represent, had weighed in on such important matters as the approval of the Agenda, adoption of the Rules, the single "sense of the Convention" resolution on Superdelegates discussed below, or maintaining a quorum necessary for electing key party officials deliberately scheduled at the end of the agenda.
Since there had been no prior outreach to others of the nearly 200 delegates who also wanted to be considered for the 20 pledged delegate and alternate positions, the slate gave the appearance of a cabal with no credible claim of a valid endorsement by the campaign. It took a motion from the floor to even get the slate to introduce themselves, let alone give an explanation why they should jump the queue to become national convention delegates in preference to others who were personally eager to compete for that reality-show opportunity themselves. At no time did the slate even argue that the campaign needed them as loyal and proven soldiers in an anticipated floor fight in order to justify the campaign's interference in the selection process.
Without convincing justification, the attempt at preempting a democratic process of individual election smacked of cronyism to many Sanders delegates who had not been consulted. The slate justified themselves solely by identity politics, but the delegates ultimately selected represented pretty much the same diversity. As a consequence of the campaign's poor advance organization and its poor presentation at the convention, the "Bernie-sndorsed" slate was overwhelmingly rejected by the same Sanders delegates who had been passionately shouting for Bernie throughout the day. Thus the good idea of taking an organized approach to the convention by the Bernie majority was rejected by Sanders delegates where it appeared to serve no purpose and was presented in a disorganized and poorly justified manner.
It should be mentioned that in the Clinton breakout sub-caucus a parallel effort to coordinate the national delegate selection was even more inept. The effort of a person who asserted authority from the Clinton campaign to appoint the Clinton delegates himself, rather than elect them democratically, was challenged as inauthentic and was rejected out of hand.
Running Out the Clock
A good slate of pledged national delegates competently presented to the Bernie sub-caucus would have saved a great deal of time at the Convention, as time was running out in the evening. Without such prior organization it was necessary to listen to the short speeches of the numerous candidates before voting. The "Bernie" slate effort, instead of saving time, ended up consuming even more time, while it was presented, debated and rejected. At the same time many delegates were anxious to get to dinner as the evening grew late.
The value of this lost time became clear when the state party took over the podium from the Sanders sub-caucus before the votes for the Sanders delegates were even counted and the results announced. The party establishment seemed to cleverly deploy identity politics by having a black woman announce that there was no quorum, without apparently taking or reporting an announced quorum count. She was a minor party official who had earlier broken out with the separate Clinton sub-caucus, and was seen serving there as a vote-counter. She peremptorily, without any apparent authority, gaveled the Convention adjourned at 8:25 PM, before important matters had been decided. In a manner reminiscent of Nevada, the State Convention was thus adjourned by asserted authority without a motion or second, as normally required by the rules.
The convention had been drawn out primarily with speeches by politicians, along with a couple time-consuming but pointless procedural contests. The main poison pill was contained in an Agenda item described in its entirety as "Guest Speakers -- TBD (throughout day)." The Agenda was approved without objection.
Many of the guest speakers who ate up time were Clinton supporters. One Sanders delegate did object from the floor, without success, to the delays for party leadership speeches, which largely consisted of attacks on Donald Trump and calls for party unity. Repeated calls were made by the likes of Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken for unity to defeat Trump. This refrain was so repetitive that the Minneapolis daily paper would headline, " DFL leaders target Trump at state convention." Trump served to divert attention from the main business of the establishment, which was to keep the party out of the hands of the Sanders majority.
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