SELECTED NOT ELECTED NOMINATED: DNC candidates defer to unity commission on eliminating superdelegates.

New York Assemblyman Michael Blake, also at the forum and running for DNC vice chair, said he agreed with Harrison and Ellison but cautioned about a system that did not include superdelegates at all. He said that if Republicans had had superdelegates, President-elect Donald Trump probably wouldn’t have won the Republican primary.

“There needs to be changes, no doubt about it. Think about on the other side, that if there would have been a superdelegate process, probably less a likelihood of Trump getting the nomination,” Blake said. “Sometimes we just have to figure out how to make the system better and what I want to make sure is regardless of what’s happening here, we’ll take the recommendations of the unity commission. Well let’s make sure, let’s figure out how to improve the process first rather than dramatically change it. Because what we don’t want to do as Democrats is dramatically change things and hurt ourselves in the long run.”

Buckley, weighing in last, said there “absolutely” had to be some kind of reform to the superdelegate system but he, like the others, refrained from saying whether that meant reducing their power or cutting them from the Democratic primary process altogether.

It sounds like leading Democrats want the appearance of change to appease their angry constituents, while each harboring the desire to be able to someday take advantage of the superdelegate system for themselves.