• by Philip Rosenstein , Staff Writer, April 18, 2016

We are finally reaching the tail end of primary and caucus season. Both parties have contested over 35 primaries and caucuses, but the nominees are far from being anointed.

The candidates are focused on large delegate number states like New York, which votes tomorrow. Both national party organizations have started preparing assiduously for the nominating conventions coming up at the end of July.

The Democrats will hold their convention in Philadelphia, the first and only world heritage city in the United States. Republican delegates will descend upon Cleveland, where many have been predicting a contested convention for months.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and his team have alluded to contesting the nomination at the DNC, starting July 25, despite having a serious deficit to make up in delegates and the popular vote. Talk of a contested DNC has been muted in comparison to the swirl of expectation for the RNC, but Sanders’ recent successes may have dented former Secretary of States Hillary Clinton’s hopes for a smooth nomination process.

One dissident voice: The Huffington Post recently published an article titled: A Contested Democratic Convention Is Now A Near Certainty - in which it claimed: “Hillary Clinton needs to win 65.3% of the remaining pledged delegates to avoid a contested Democratic convention … Barring Senator Sanders dropping out of the Democratic race prior to the New York primary [which is not going to happen], it is virtually impossible for Secretary Clinton to hit [the required number of pledged delegates to win the Party’s nomination].”

Philadelphia will feel the heat as delegates, campaigns and media apparati roll in to the city that was host to our country’s first federal government. The city itself has a wealth of political and historical events and locations that will be running full throttle before and during the convention.

Predictit.org presents a 58% chance of a contested Republican convention. Such an event is unheard of in the modern media era of real-time news and with the social loudspeakers of Twitter and Facebook.

Upcoming columns will highlight Philadelphia and Cleveland as the cities prepare for the enormous media events that are modern-party conventions, let alone contested ones.