• What is the goal on Tuesday?To acquire as many delegates as possible. But awarding the delegates is a complicated process.The Republican system is designed to hasten selection of a nominee so the party can unify behind the front-runner. To that end, the GOP in most states awards delegates on a winner-take-all basis. Democrats tend to worry more about giving different groups a say in the process. So they award their delegates proportionally through a combination of the statewide vote and a candidate’s performance in individual congressional districts. Democrats have no winner-take-all states. That means a candidate can lose the popular vote in a state but, by running strongly in certain areas, walk away with a healthy chunk of delegates.• How many delegates are at stake on Tuesday?On the Democratic side, 1,681 pledged delegates are up for grabs in 22 states and American Samoa; it takes 2,025 delegates to secure the party’s nomination at the Democrat’s August convention in Denver. On the Republican side, there will be contests in 21 states with 2,380 delegates at stake; it takes 1,191 to win the nomination at the GOP’s September convention in Minneapolis. • And superdelegates?Superdelegates are people automatically granted a vote in the Democratic nominating process by dint of their office or the political position they once held. Members of Congress and the nation’s Democratic governors are superdelegates. So are former Presidents Clinton and Carter and former Vice President Al Gore. The Republicans do not have superdelegates.• Who’s ahead in delegates?According to The Associated Press, Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has 261 delegates and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has 190. On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain of Arizona has the most delegates, 93, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 77, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 40, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 4.• Are delegates bound to support the candidate they pledged to support once they reach the party conventions? Again, the rules vary. On the Republican side, some states require delegates to stick by a candidate for a certain number of ballots. Others don’t. On the Democratic side, despite the use of the term “pledged delegates,” in reality they are not required to support a particular candidate once they reach the convention, although they are expected to do so.• Will Tuesday’s vote settle the two nominating fights?Depending on the outcome, Super Tuesday could give McCain a big boost toward securing the GOP nomination. Polls show him running ahead of Romney in some big winner-take-all states, which could significantly pad McCain’s delegate count and lengthen the odds that Romney can overtake him.For Democrats, it is hard to envision anything other than a continued fight between Clinton and Obama. The proportional allocation of delegates and the fact both are waging well-financed, competitive campaigns suggests each will walk away Tuesday claiming a victory of some sort. That gives both a strong incentive to press on as the race heads into Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia for next week’s contests on “Chesapeake Tuesday.”
