Convention History: Not All Sunshine and Lollypops

Jeff Alworth

Campaign history is a small eddy in the current of American history, and convention history an even smaller niche.  So it's forgiveable when people fail to recall some of the great battles in convention history.  Sometimes the battles happen when the party has little chance of winning, sometimes when it seems like a sure bet.  You can see why: in down years, politicos are maneuvering for the future or trying to wrest control away from the leaders responsible for down fortunes.  When it's a Democratic year, the scrapping happens between power players who want the tiller and their supporters who stand to rise with a new administration.  I spent the summer looking through some of this history, and it appears that there has never been much correlation between the intensity of the intramural squabble and the outcome in November.  Here's a couple of examples that highlight the point.

1924  – Longest Convention
The result of the ’24 convention wasn’t much to remember—forgotten Democrat John Davis managed only 29% of the vote in a three-way battle with Calvin Coolidge and Progressive Robert LaFollette in the general.  But it did break a bunch of records.  Ballot after ballot, California’s William McAdoo was locked in a battle with (gasp!)  Catholic New Yorker Al Smith (the 1828 nominee).  The Ku Klux Klan opposed Smith, and their involvment was so contentious that governors of Colorado and Kentucky got into fistfights over whether antiKlan members would carry their state banners.  Eventually, after nine days and 103 ballots, the main contenders released their ballots and the compromise candidate, Woodrow Wilson’s Solicitor-General, was finally selected.

1932  – A New Deal
File this under  “they don’t make conventions like they used to.”  The delegates met that year in Chicago, and the preliminaries delayed voting until 4:30 in the morning.  It was an all-New York affair, with Al Smith once again trying to get the nomination, but trailing Franklin Roosevelt in early voting.  Although FDR had the upper hand, he couldn’t beat Smith.  Delegates adjourned at 9:15 in the morning so the candidates could work the various delegations.  FDR managed to flip California’s John Nance Garner, the Speaker of the House.  He released his delegates and FDR won.  Still, the bitter Smith, who had had a falling out with FDR in ’28, didn’t release his delegates, denying Roosevelt a unanimous win.

The '32 election is particularly instructive for people who want to draw analogies.  It was one of those sure-bet moments, and passions were off the charts.  The fact that Smith was so angry that he wouldn't releases his delegates had little effect on the outcome of the election.  It's hard to see how today's vote at the convention, which will surely produce a nomination for Obama, could affect the votes of Americans in November.  As in '32, there's too much to lose.

Photo credit: Washington Post

By Jeff Alworth Aug. 27, 2008