Democrats Head for Boston
By Karen Fanning

	Gwendolyn Creacy, 19, of Texas was the youngest delegate at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles in 2000. (Photo: Damon Winter/ NewsCom)

Weeks before the Republicans storm New York City for their 2004 convention, the Democrats will hold a bash of their own. Party leaders and presidential hopefuls will gather in Boston, Massachusetts, in late July. They will launch the first shot in what will be a long and heated battle to defeat President Bush.

As one of the nation's most liberal states, Massachusetts is the perfect place to hold the 2004 Democratic Convention, says Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

"Perhaps no city better embodies the American spirit," he said about Boston, which has never before hosted a national political convention. "It is the birthplace of American patriotism and an ideal backdrop for an affirmation of Democratic values."

It is also the home state of Senator John Kerry, who is one of nine Democrats vying to challenge President Bush in the 2004 election. Only one politician, however, will come into the convention as the likely Democratic nominee.

The responsibility of actually nominating that candidate will fall to 4,319 Democratic Party delegates. While some delegates are career politicians, most are ordinary citizens. They are often party activists in their hometowns. Some are student leaders. Fifty percent are women. And they represent a wide range of ethnicities.

The percentage of votes that each candidate receives in each state during the primaries determines the percentage of delegates they will be able to send to the convention. For example, if 60 percent of the voters in the New Hampshire primary vote for John Edwards, the Senator from North Carolina will receive roughly 60 percent of the Granite State's delegates. Candidates need 50 percent of the delegate vote nationwide to become the Democratic nominee.

The number of delegates each state gets is based on its population. So while the nation's most populous state, California, will send 441 delegates to the 2004 convention, Rhode Island will only send 32. As a result, candidates tend to focus their attention on states with the largest delegations during primary season.

Although the main order of business at the convention will be to select the Democratic nominee, party leaders will also take the opportunity to write, argue about, and vote on the Democratic platform for the upcoming election. That platform will represent a collection of issues that the Democrats deem to be the most important to the future of America and its citizens.

The presidential candidate may adapt part of the party platform as his own. Most candidates, however, develop their own stands on their own issues, which usually reflect the party's positions, but does not strictly follow the platform.