I always felt Super Tuesday needed a mascot. And, that is my first point of clarification. I am talking about the primary election day…nothing to do with the ESPN television series.

We first heard the term in 1984 when Walter Mondale and Gary Hart vied for the nomination. In fact, we had three of them that year. I won’t go into the detail about what each candidate said. Sufficient to say in the end, Walter Mondale only won the electoral votes that November in Minnesota and in DC. [Please note Wikipedia states the term was really used in 1976.]

So what is it? Super Tuesday refers to the day in a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to the national conventions.

• 1984—five states were involved which helped bring the nomination to Democrat Walter Mondale;
• 1988 – nine states held primary elections on March 8, 1988 and the votes were split between Democrats Dick Gephardt, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, and Michael Dukakis with the latter eventually being nominated;
• 1992 – The March 10, 1992 election brought Democrat Bill Clinton into the national spotlight;
• 1996 – March 12, 1996 included nine states and secured Republican Bob Dole’s bid;
• 2000 – 16 states participated in the March 7, 2000 election;
• 2004 – Fewer states participated on February 3, 2004, and there were only five states with primaries and two caucuses;
• 2008 – Only four states held primary elections on March 4, 2008, but 24 had moved their own primary election up to February 5, 2008 so it ended up being called Super Duper Tuesday;
• 2012 – 10 states held primary elections on March 6, 2012; and
• 2016 – We will have 13 states involved in the March 1, 2016 date.

This column is not going to support any candidates. However, it is going to emphasize the importance of voting whenever your state has scheduled those dates. All those election dates are on our website, www.stateandfed.com.

On Tuesday, March 15 the staff of State and Federal Communications are offered one hour at the beginning of the day to vote before arriving to work. Until next month, remember to VOTE, plan for it so you do not forget or end up out of town, and encourage friends and family to do so.

Thank you.

Elizabeth Z. Bartz

President and CEO
@elizabethbartz

With all of the attention placed on the Republican primaries and caucuses – especially with Super Tuesday happening this week – our Highlighted Site of the Week is a trio of delegate tracker sites.

Politico has a great Delegate Tracker page that can help you make sense of where each of the candidates stands in gaining the biggest portion of the 2,286 delegates needed to win the nomination at the GOP National Convention.

I personally like the GOP Delegate Tracker on The Wall Street Journal’s Election 2012 site. It has a bar graph with the candidates, an interactive map of the states, and even an interactive timeline.

There is, of course, always The New York Times. They have their Republican Delegate Count page and their State-by-State Primary Results page. As part of the NYTimes Election 2012 online resources, you can easily navigate to reviews of the debates and summaries of campaign finance information for each candidate.

Video courtesy of The Associated Press.

Have a great weekend everyone!

“Can social media predict election outcomes?” by Jon Swartz in USA Today.

“Twitter and The Countdown To Super Tuesday” by Shea Bennett on All Twitter.

“Romney to Win Republican Nomination, Facebook Says” by Kate Knibbs in Mobiledia.

“Facebook users not talking about Rick Santorum (infographic)” by Emil Protalinski on ZDNet.

“Will Romney’s Facebook fans help win Super Tuesday?” by Athima Chansanchai on MSNBC’s Digital Life.

“Santorum’s Facebook Fans Silent Before Super Tuesday” by Jennifer Moire on All Facebook.